The Difference
by Miskit
Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she was eight. What happens when she comes to space with her uncle and the others? She's known Johnny for years, neither ever really being friends. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC
1. prologue

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she eight. What happens whenshe came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC

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_There is nothing new except what has been forgotten. Maria Antoinette _

He still wasn't entirely sure how she had managed to talk him into letting her tag along on this 'field trip' to the final frontier. But, somehow, she had done it and he supposed he shouldn't be all that surprised by it – she was related to him after all. This fact made Reed Richards grin, nodding silently to himself as he sat the papers he was reading through aside for a brief moment. He glanced sidelong to the young woman perched on the edge of one of the several arm chairs in the waiting room; she was totally engrossed in the book she was currently reading, her long, thin fingers gripping the spine and flipping through pages like she wanted to literally jump into the story.

Reed wondered whether he ever looked that absorbed in his research. He probably did, though he was very sure he could never be as easy on the eyes as his niece did while doing it. She had grown into such a beautiful young woman over the years from the awkward little girl that had once called him 'uhnkel Weed'. She had the same dark hair as he and her father, Dwayne Richards, did, but she had soft features and striking hazel eyes like that of her mother, Charlotte. Reed remembered how she used to be such a lanky child, and very thin. Almost sickly thin in his opinion, but that was mostly attributed to her premature birth – she had been born about a month and a half too soon after all. Reed had been overjoyed just to hear that his younger brother's child and his only niece had survived, so the fact that she had been thin was something he had easily looked over. And when she entered her teenage years her arms always seemed to be too long for her body. By now, though, she'd filled out a bit. She was still on the skin side of things, but at least she looked healthy now, and her limbs fit her body properly now.

"Take a picture, old man, it'll last longer."

Reed lifted his gaze from the young woman's fingers on the book to her smirking face. She had a brow arched high on her forehead, hazel eyes trained on the page she read from. The scientist shook his head at her, "Always so sweet to your uncle, Noah."

"I do what I can." She turned the page in her book, a chuckle in her voice. Reed smiled, having long since come to enjoy this banter of theirs.

"What are you reading?"

"Oh, just brushing up on evolution and life altering cosmic energy clouds." She rolled her eyes at him, "You know, the usual."

"Right," He sighed heavily, playing at exasperated. "Remind me again why I had to argue with Victor for days to get you on board this station?"

"Because I rock at Health and Environmental Sciences and you need me around to help determine the effects this space fog of yours will have on humans and every other living thing on God's rotting, polluted Earth." She grinned cheekily over her book, "Plus the simply but oh so important fact that I'm your favorite niece."

Reed laughed, "You're my only niece…"

"Well, then all the more reason for me to be here."

Ben chuckled huskily from his kneeling position just off to the side of Noah's chair. He was tucking the photo of his fiancée, Debbie, backing into his old address book and stuffing it all into his duffle bag. The bald man had been in a real sour mood earlier, not pleased in the slightest with the news he had been given that he would be following orders from someone who had once been his subordinate. His mood had improved over the last half hour though. Or, at least he wasn't giving Reed the 'stink-eye' anymore. "You can't argue with that, Reed."

Ben Grimm was just as much of an uncle to Noah as Reed was; the two men had been best friends for so long and Ben had been around the Baxter Building so often over the years that the man was practically family. He _was_ family as far as Noah was concerned. She could even go as far as to say Ben was even like an older brother to her rather than a second uncle. And Debbie, well, Noah wasn't so close to Debbie as she was to Ben, but she liked her well enough. Debbie seemed like an alright lady and Ben loved her enough to be marrying her, so Noah accepted her as family as well; a distant member perhaps, but family nonetheless.

"I could try," Reed shifted his gaze from Noah to Ben. He tried to look smug. "I've been known to win an argument or two from time to time."

"Not with her you aren't."

"Well, then I can always play the legal guardian card and win by default," Reed's brow arched up high towards his hairline He clearly felt victorious. "It's my infallible defense tactic."

Noah snorted, but relented, letting her uncle have this one small victory. It was true that Reed was her guardian, and had been since she was eight – eleven long years. Her being nineteen now kind of made that foolproof tactic of his rather obsolete; being a legal adult now herself, she really didn't even need him as a legal guardian anymore, but he had been her stand in parent for so long now that it seemed strange and wrong to change all of that now. He'd taken her to live with him in the Baxter Building after Social Services had deemed her own parents as being ill equipped to raise her. She'd gone through a lot of shit before Reed rescued her from that dark life – the kind of stuff she never talked about to anyone and Ben and Reed were careful never to bring up. So, as far as she was concerned, the man was welcome to pull that old legal guardian defense tactic all he wanted. He had earned the right to use it.

"Sounds more like a cop-out to me."

Noah laughed out loud at the scowl that flitted over her uncle's face, she and Ben sharing a look at Reed's expense. Leave it to good old Ben to deliver the killing blow every time.

"Captain on the bridge!"

The laughter died as the voice of a man barked out from behind them, sending Ben up on his feet and standing stiff and erect at attention in the blink of an eye. Noah didn't even bother to turn and look at the entering individual. She'd know that voice anywhere, even after all these years. The blinding flash of a camera bought Ben out of his hard military stance and Noah watched his face flush in anger with each step the blond entering the room took.

"Digital camera - $254. Memory stick - $59. The look on your hard-ass former C.O.'s face when he finds out he's you junior officer – priceless." Johnny Storm gloated his way into the room, dropping his bag to the floor and settling down on the arm of the chair Noah sat in.

Uncle and niece shared a look of their own this time, both trying in vain to hold in a smile at Ben's misfortune. Noah just shook her head and continued to read as Ben and this maverick easily slipped back into their old tense, junior-senior struggle of a friendship once more. The sound of their baiting and bickering was a familiar thing by now and easily ignored from her point of view.

Noah remembered the first time she'd met Johnny Storm… Reed and Sue had been going on their third month together back then and Johnny had tagged along with his sister to Noah's twelfth birthday party. He had been seventeen and the age difference had left them with very little in common. Over the five years that Reed and Sue Storm had dated each other, she and Johnny were almost nearly always in contact with each other and the older boy had resorted to teasing her when he wasn't too busy sucking face with bimbo of the hour girlfriends. But that had been years ago and Reed and Sue had long since broken it off between them, and she hadn't seen Johnny since she was seventeen years old. She doubted the blond-haired, blue-eyed egomaniac had changed much though – he certainly looked the same to her, just taller and with a slightly deeper voice then she remembered.

"I can handle this ship. I can even handle Mr. Blond Ambition," she heard Ben say as he moved on from Johnny and over to the mini closet, watching him tug out a blue spandex flight suit. "But I don't know if I should be flying or doing _Swan Lake_ in these suits."

Noah chuckled, giving Ben a wink. "Ooh, sexy, Ben. Blue is definitely your color."

"Quiet, you." Ben grimaced at her, shaking his head as he inspected the suit further.

Johnny seemed to have finally taken notice in her presence, her voice catching his attention and drawing his gaze down to her. She blatantly ignored his blue-eyed stare, turning another page in her book. She could practically hear the wheels in his head turning, struggling to put a name to her face, certain he recognized her, but was drawing a blank with how he knew her. The blond was still looking her over with that muddled look of his when Ben spoke again.

"Come on, I mean, who the hell came up with these?"

"Victor did." Their little group, minus a still pondering Johnny, looked up as Sue Storm walking in. She looked as dazzling as ever and Noah found herself smiling at the blond woman; she had always liked Sue. Liked her more so then she had ever liked Debbie and of all the women her uncle had ever tried and miserably failed at dating, Sue was by far her favorite. The woman was smart and beautiful and, unlike the others, she and her uncle had actually been in love with one another. "The synthetics act as a second skin, adapting to your body's individual needs."

"See, now that means it keeps the hot stuff hot and the cool stuff cool." Johnny added, snapping out of his stupor long enough to toss in a comment of his own. It was typical Johnny Storm behavior. He even used his hands while he spoke, gesturing about like he knew what he was talking about - like Noah remembered he always had.

"Putting high school chemistry to good use, I see." Noah chirped in, turning a page in her book with a quick glance up at the blond man. Their eyes met and Johnny frowned down at her, head tilting just so in utter confusion. His mouth opened like he meant to say something to her, but Noah's attention was swiftly stolen away by the sight of her uncle standing up from his seat across the way and approaching Sue.

Noah grimaced. This wasn't going to end well; she could feel it.

"Wow. Fantastic." Reed breathed in wonder and Noah watched in dismay as Sue's face lit up like a candle in a dark room. She winced inwardly when her witless-wonder of an uncle grabbed the suit Ben was holding. "Material made from self-regulating, unstable molecules…"

Sue's glowing expression deteriorated into awkward embarrassment and then into irritation that barely masked the extent of her anger beneath. Everyone but Reed saw it.

"I've been working on a formula for this."

"Smooth move, genius." Noah muttered under her breath, shaking her head at her uncle's stupidity. She sighed heavily and watched as Sue placed a stiff hand on her hip. It was a stance Noah had seen many times before in the past and recognized it for the easily, clear sign of anger that it was – something her uncle, unfortunately, had never learned to take a hint from.

"Great minds think alike." Sue look pissed; she was the kind of woman who was rather good at hiding these kinds of emotions, but it was easily spotted by someone who knew where to look for it. And Reed just kept studying the suit in his hands, oblivious to the error of his ways and the tension everyone else in the room could feel and see. "Here, Ben." The blonde woman handed Ben a blue outer jumper, one of three she had carried in with her. She smiled fondly at the bald man, affection for him leaking through the irritation and hurt she felt on account of Reed.

"Thanks, sweetie." Ben gave her and an apologetic smile, taking the offered jumper.

"Reed." Sue tossed, or rather she right out threw Reed his jumper in no attempt to hide her current animosity towards him. Noah had to fight to hold in her laugh at her bone-headed uncle's expense – the look that had crossed his face had been priceless. He really just didn't get it, the poor old fool. When Sue handed the last jumper and suit to her, Noah accepted them with a smile and took the hand the elder woman had held out to her. Noah stood, leaving her book on the chair behind. "Come one, Noah, I'll show you where you can change."

The room fell into silence for a full minute after the two girls left, Ben and Reed busying themselves with changing, before a loud sound of alarm filtered up from the back of Johnny's throat. The two older men looked back at the blond, watching him point at the empty doorway with wide blue eyes. Ben cracked a smirk at the shock on Johnny's handsome face.

"Did she say Noah? NOAH?" Johnny exclaimed, "_That_ was 'noodle-arm' Noah? 'Noah's ark'? 'Know-it-all' Noah Richards?"

"Careful, Johnny." Reed warned with a chuckle, resuming in the unbuttoning of the collared shirt he was wearing, "She'll slit our throat if she hears you using one of those old nicknames."

"I wouldn't blame her if she did…" Ben muttered, giving Johnny a glare as the blond slide into the seat Noah had previously been occupying, "In fact, I'd reward her if she did."

Johnny ignored the bald man's words; his eyes were still glued to the empty doorway. "When the hell did that happen?" The blond gestured again, gaze finally dropping from the doorway to the book the girl had left behind. He scowled at the title. "The Noah I remember was an annoying little gangly kid with long twig arms and a face like a weasel. When did she turn into a reasonably good looking chick?"

"Watch it, playboy." Ben warned before Reed even got his mouth open, "You touch her and you're dead. Got it?"

"Easy, Papa Bear," Johnny baited the other man. He waved a dismissive hand, "Aw, cool it. She'd not even my type. Pretty, but still subpar."

"What, she not sleazy enough for that sordid pallet of yours?" Ben bit back, zipping up the blue synthetic suit he now wore and doing so rather aggressively.

"Hey, kudos for the big-boys words," the blond smirked at the look Ben gave him. He shook his head, "But no. It's more like she'd too pretty. I don't do pretty – I prefer hot. Pretty is too plain and common for my tastes."

"Too smart to be one of your hooker-bimbos sounds more like it." Ben snorted, smirking along with Reed as they finished dressing. "She's too smart for you at all."

Johnny just scowled at the two older men, blue eyes lifting to stare through the empty doorway once more.

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Please Review and let me know what you think! Pardon any spelling/grammatical errors you might find. 


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she eight. What happens if she came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC

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_Fate keeps on happening – Anita Loos_

Only an hour after the Storm/Grimm/Richards reunion, the von Doom ship was docking down on Victor's station and the group crossed over with purpose in each of their steps. They carried on silver cases of equipment, each wearing matching grey-blue jumpers over the blue synthetic suits given to each of them. Victor von Doom led them through a hall, past a large observation window that gave the passerby a breath taking glimpse at the planet they had left behind. The Earth looked so very far away from that window and Noah felt a pang of apprehension as she looked on – if something went wrong up here they were pretty much up shit's creek without a paddle…

"We can monitor the cloud's approach and observe the tests from here." Sue informed Reed and Co. as everyone went their separate ways upon entering the vast and silver-cool control room. Noah had kept to the older blonde's side throughout the entire journey from the ship to the station, but she now branched off to join Ben and her uncle when Sue followed her brother over to a set of computers.

"Is it safe?" Ben asked as he unzipped the jumper over his suit. He was looking around at the place as suspiciously as Noah felt.

"The shields on the station should protect us." Reed explained nonchalantly as Noah leaned her elbows against the railing along the upper level of the control room, she was looking down into the center of the room while Reed spoke; when he finished his explanation, she and Ben shard a look.

"'Should'?" The bald man asked for the both of them, a half humored smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"What's the matter, Ben?" Victor von Doom himself asked as he sauntered over to the trio. He mirrored Noah's pose against the railing with an irritatingly taunting look on his smug face. It felt a lot like he was forcing his way into a private party uninvited – or, at least Noah felt irritated by his presence as much so as if that had been the case. "Getting paranoid in your old age?"

Ben looked ready to snap a response when Reed cut in, clearly trying to avoid any kind of confrontation. Noah watched her uncle circle around Ben to stand between his best friends and Victor, giving him a look that implored the bald man to let the comment pass. "Let's start loading those samples. Noah, go give Johnny a hand and set up for your analysis of the growth and decay of the samples upon exposure to the cloud. Ben, get your suit ready."

Noah nodded, pushing up off the rail. She hesitated though, watching the inner struggle Ben was having. The man relented though and started to walk off.

"So, I see you're still doing all the heavy lifting." Victor threw in another comment, the sound of it coming off boarder line baiting. The man was obviously trying to start something. Ben stopped in his tracks and Noah watched her uncle hang his head in exasperation as Victor moved on to him. "Maybe you should have stayed in the lab. Field work never suited you."

Reed's mouth opened to argue and Noah was proud of him for the attempt. After all, her uncle wasn't exactly known for being all that ballsy when it came to standing up for himself… not at all, actually. But the attempt spoke volumes towards a slow improvement in this lacking field of his. Either way, attempt or not, Ben still got the defenses up first. The bald man wedged himself between Victor and Reed.

"He does the talkin'. I do the wakin'. Got it?" Good old Ben. He was always the first to protect the people most important to him, no matter how big or small the threat might be.

"So take a walk, Ben." Victor said, and Noah knew she and Ben were both wearing 'oh no he didn't' expressions on their faces. "Actually," Victor announced. "If you'll all excuse me, I need to borrow Susan for a moment."

The blonde woman looked up from the panel she was working at, looking at Victor questioningly. Noah wanted nothing more than to deck her uncle for being so stupid when he backed down and walked away, hauling her away by the arm with his to leave Victor and Sue alone. Johnny left with them, the three of them heading out of the control room to the portal room Ben would be leaving through.

"Is he always such an asshole?" Noah asked once they were out of ear shot.

"Noah." Reed scowled at her, "Language." The girl rolled her eyes. Never mind that she was nearly twenty years old, uncle Reed would always and forever use that warning, paternal tone of his with her whenever he heard her cuss.

"Let it go, Reed. You know she's right; there isn't any better word to describe him." Ben nodded at Noah, "And yes. He's always an asshole. Always was, always will be."

"Don't tell her that, Ben." Reed protested, but Noah was already smirking at him.

"What happened to 'Victor's not that bad. He's just larger then life.'?" She asked her uncle, arms crossed over her chest. Her brow was arched, hazel gaze studying her legal guardian knowingly.

"It's time to face the truth, sweetie." Ben chuckled from a few feet away while Johnny helped him into his space suit, "Your uncle's a liar."

Noah laughed, watching Reed stomp off with the closest thing to a pout she had ever seen on his face. He was grumbling his way down the hall, most likely heading off to monitor the cloud. He was sore with them now, but she and Ben both knew he'd be fine soon enough. Most likely, in ten minutes he'd be back with charts in hand, dying to share some discovery he'd made about the inner workings of the stars or space itself.

"Please tell me your guy's not trying to rekindle things with my sister again." Noah heard Johnny say to Ben roughly five minutes after Reed had stormed off. The blond was finishing up with Ben's suit as he spoke.

"It's been two years, Johnny." Noah responded first, speaking from across the way, her eyes glued to the never ending space beyond the window. "There's nothing between but business and a mutual love for science between them now."

"Exactly," Ben agreed. "It's strictly business."

"Yes, well, his eyes say differently, don't they?"

"Hey," Noah turned in time to see Ben grab Johnny's arm, snatching full attention from the blond as he spoke in a hushed tone between them. "Two hearts got busted last time. Maybe she's not over it either."

"Wow, Dr. Phil, that's deep." Johnny taunted and Noah rolled her eyes as she collected the plant samples and carried them over to the two men. "Let's think about that…"

Noah and Ben shared a look, one that spoke volumes of just how little either of them really wanted to hear what the blond had to say; Johnny pulled away to punch in a few codes at the computer as he spoke. The young woman sighed, shaking her head as she clipped an anchoring cable to the front of Ben's suit to prevent the plant samples from floating off should Ben let go of the case, listening as Johnny carried on.

"You've got Victor – more money than God, stud of the year – and you got Reed," Johnny followed Ben into the air-lock chamber for a final check that everything was secure and in perfect working order, "the world's dumbest smart guy, worth less than a postage stamp. Yeah, that's a real toss-up…"

"Don't trouble your tiny little mind." Ben ground out, glaring at Johnny once more. The blond just grinned, patted the bald man's shoulder and topped it off with a snide remark or two of his own. Noah found herself sighing again at the banter, eyes fixed on Ben as Johnny left the chamber to lock everything down and open the portal.

The young woman felt that anxiety in the pit of her stomach again as the blond came to stand at her side. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, worrying the soft flesh with a slight furrow to her dark brow – she had a really bad feeling about this. From the corner of her eye she saw Johnny salute Ben and give him a mostly sincere double thumbs-up. The bald man returned the blond's gesture and then gave her a small wave, which she responded to by blowing the man a kiss. He smiled from inside the chamber at her and then turned his back on the both of them as the portal opened for him and he stepped outside the safety of the station. Noah's lungs were itching with nerves as she watched him go, holding her breath fearfully. She had a really bad feeling about this.

Feeling Johnny's eyes on her, Noah turned away and settled at a monitor to pretend to busy herself in preparation for analyzing the samples Ben was about to set up for the cloud.

"So, are you still sliding around on ice?"

Noah felt a half humored chuckle tickle the back of her throat despite her dismay to hear Johnny address her. He was just trying to break the ice between them, kill the less then comfortable silence that had covered them since Ben left, but she couldn't help but feel annoyed by it. It was hard to just accept the other's presence and talk to him after two years of no contact between them at all and very little between them even when they _had _been around one another. "Yeah. I'm still… sliding on ice."

"Cool. Cool. Any good at it?" He asked and she looked over his shoulder at him as he spoke. Her brow twitched when he chuckled at her. "'Cause, I mean, all I can remember about you skating before is watching you flop around on the ice. Seemed to me like you feel down every time you'd just manage to get up on your feet…"

Her eyes narrowed, a mock smile that had no warmth whatsoever behind it stretched her lips as she stared at him for a good long, hard minute. When she spoke, her words were hard, clipped, that same mockery of humor behind it that brought a frown to Johnny's lips. "That's because the only time you actually came to watch me skate was the first time I had ever tried it. Practice makes perfect, Johnny, but you never had time to waste on watching some dumb little kid improve."

He was silent. Imagine it, the great Johnny Storm left speechless…

"Anyway," She turned the tables on him this time, head tilted just so as she spoke, "What about you? Are you still riding that metal death trap of yours?"

"Yeah," Johnny grinned at the mentioning of his beloved bike. That coy look of his was firmly back in place on his face again "Maybe if you're lucky I'll take you for a ride someday."

"M-mm, can't wait." She murmured sarcastically.

They stared at each other for a long while, or so it seemed to them. Noah's eyes were sharp and cold on Johnny's face and the blond seemed to be looking everywhere but at her eyes. The silence between them wasn't all together an uncomfortable one, because being together like this was very familiar to them despite the absence and years between them. It was just tense and kind of awkward. They had never really been friends; no, their presence was always just been accepted by each other, a kind of casualness they had been forced into by Sue and Reed's relationship. But they had never been friends. Even saying they were acquaintances might be stretching it a bit thinly.

"You, uh… you cut your hair." Johnny gestured to the dark waves that dropped just bellow Noah's jaw, his free hand rubbing against his own short strands. "I remember it being a lot longer. It was straighter too."

"Imagine the wonders a haircut and a curling iron can accomplish." She said it cheekily, looking him over again with less than appraising eyes, "And you've… well, you've gotten taller I guess." She chuckled with a furrow of her brow as she looked up to his face, shrugging with one shoulder, "Other than that I'd say you're exactly as I remember you, Johnny Storm."

"Yeah?" That infuriatingly, boyish look of smugness coiled over his handsome features and he leaned towards her, bracing an arm on the wall beside the monitor she was clicking away at once more. "And how do you remember me?"

"Being an incompetent, narcissistic, egomaniac with more balls than brains." She told him flatly, not buffering her words in the slightest.

He laughed, "You forgot ridiculously good-looking."

It was her turn to chuckle and she did, turning now to face him fully once more and tilted her head to one side as she spoke. She sounded amused and irritated at the same time. "I didn't forget. You just aren't nearly as good-looking as you seem to think you are."

"Ouch." Johnny winced as he watched her move away to another monitor. He followed her over with a slight scowl, "So when did the mouse become a lion? I don't remember you ever being this outspoken before."

"What do you care?" She asked distractedly as she clicked away at the monitor, not even sparing the blond a half glance. "Given the chance to do so, people tend to change with time. Just like the rest of the world."

"So, what does that mean? You hate me now, or something?"

"I never liked you to begin with, Johnny. I just tolerated you and your tactless ways."

"Now, that's not a very nice thing to say, Noah." Johnny spoke in that taunting voice of his – like he was speaking to a five year old. "What would your uncle say if he could hear you now?"

"Don't patronize me, Johnny. I'm not a toddler." She scowled at him in turn, "And my uncle has nothing to do with how I feel about other people. I can decide for myself how to treat others without his assistance."

"Then what's with the attitude?" He snapped, looking just about as irritated with the situation now as she was.

"Consider it pay back for the five years you subjected me to your less then amicable personality."

"What?"

She sighed, shaking her head at him, "You were an asshole to a twelve year old and you deserve it."

"Oh, whatever," Johnny scoffed at her in annoyance, "Me? _I_ was the asshole?"

"Are you implying that I was?"

"I'm not implying anything, I'm telling you like it is."

"Oh, this should be good. Please, elaborate for me, Johnny." She arched a brow at him, "Explain to me how I was the asshole."

"You were so _ann__oying_, all the time!" He exclaimed, "Always following me around and wanting me to watch you do this or that or talking. Jesus, you never stopped talking!"

"I was twelve, Johnny." Her voice, unlike his, was completely calm and even as she stared at him. "And you were a cool high school boy and I was getting to hang out with you. Did you ever think that maybe I just wanted you to approve of me?"

"Approve of you? What the hell does that mean?"

"Never mind…" She shook her head with a deeply set scowl in her brow, turn her back on him and returning to the monitor she was working at. "I can see this conversation is going to get neither of us anywhere any time soon."

Johnny frowned at the back of her head, confused as all get out with what had been said between them. It had only been two years since he had last seen the girl, not really all that long ago when you thought about it, but she had changed so much since then. Not just appearance wise either, but her mind had changed as well. She'd always been smart, he knew, much smarter than he ever had a hope to be at least, but she'd always been a meek kind of girl – the kind that shadowed you everywhere and tried to make conversation at the wrong time about the wrong kind of things. She'd had a very timid way of doing it though, like she knew she'd be told off for it, but was desperate to try anyway. It had been so annoying. But now, well, she wasn't so meek anymore, and when she spoke she didn't do so lightly. It seemed she only spoke when she had to and when she did she did it was confidence and conviction behind her words. And her appearance now seemed to match that poise in her voice – she'd matured a great deal in those two years of absence between them, and Johnny could see it now. Before she'd always just been Noah, not even really a girl in his mindset; just little skinny, gangly, know-it-all Noah Richards. But now… he could see the woman he had over looked in her as a child.

"You've really grown up…" Johnny said; his previously growing anger dropping out of his voice like it had never been there to begin with.

"Yes, well…"Noah hesitated, her own voice dropping much like Johnny's had, "it's been known to happen from time to time. Children growing up, I mean."

A gin stretched Johnny's mouth as Noah turned her head to look at him. The air was still tense around them, but not quite so much as it had been before – their borderline argument must have been just enough to ease the situation. The blond's mouth opened with a remark or comment of some kind, but it never got out; the loud clatter of feet on the steel flooring alerted both of them and they turned to see Reed running towards them, shouting into his ear piece in a frenzy to reach Ben.

"What's going on?" Johnny asked. His voice far too calm in Noah's opinion considering the panic she saw in her uncle's brown eyes.

"Ben, you have to get inside. Now." The raw sound of her uncle's voice only heightened Noah's sense of dread as she followed him over to the large observation window to see Ben hard at work outside. Her heart stopped in terror.

"Oh my god…" Her heart leapt into her throat and she heard Johnny breathe in a sharp breath beside her. The cloud was practically right on top of Ben.

_"I ain't done arranging your flowers yet, Egg-head."_ Ben's voice answered through the comm. devices they all wore.

"Ben," Reed sounded out of breath, "turn around."

They all watched the bald man turn about out on the platform. Noah couldn't imagine what the man must be feeling as he stared into the cloud roaring towards him.

_"Guys, I'm not gonna make it…"_ Ben told them and Noah slammed her palms to the glass in front of her. She felt Reed grab her elbow as she shouted at Ben like the man would somehow hear her.

"Ben, you gotta jump!" Johnny called through the comm. device he wore to the other man. "It's the only way!"

"No, no, we have to go get him!" Noah shouted at her uncle, "Open the chamber! We have to help him! He isn't going to make it!" The look her uncle wore on his face did nothing to help calm her; if anything, it made things worse.

The three of them watched Ben take a leap off the platform, pushing off as hard as he could and projecting himself out into the space between the platform and the station portal he had gone out through. Just behind him, a second after his jump, the cloud struck the platform and the metal flared an angry, fiery red. Flames seemed to lick at Ben's feet as he fought his way through space to the station, moving as quickly as he could and only just barely remaining beyond the hungry cloud's reach.

"Come on, Ben, you got this..!" Johnny grit out from beside Noah as they all watched, desperate, but utterly helpless behind the glass of the station.

"Ok, Johnny," Reed reached over Noah to touch the blond's shoulder, "I need you to get ready to close the portal…"

Johnny grabbed at Noah's hand as he nodded at Reed, pulling her along with him as he hurried away from the glass and over to a set of monitors. The girl came with him easily, but in her state of panic she didn't have much choice but to go where he led her.

"Noah, I need you to operate here for me while I'm opening the portal," He explained to her, moving on to another monitor as he did. "It's the only way we can do this fast enough to protect Ben from the cloud, understand?" He stared hard at her, blue eyes more afraid then she ever remembered seeing them. She nodded, taking a breath to steady herself and then began clicking away as she was needed to.

Working together, Noah and Johnny managed to get the portal doors closed just as Ben came shooting into the chamber from outside. They watched in horror, though, as the cloud struck the man first a split second before he entered the chamber. They could all feel the cloud washing over the station, leaving fiery lashes over the metal in its wake. Ben collapsed within the chamber, just beyond everyone's reach – the station was shaking, trembling against the force of the cloud and Noah thought at once that the raw energy would send them hurtling back down to Earth in a mass of flames and melted metals. Nobody had much more time to think on the possibility, though, as the portal door gave way to the cloud's strength and was torn open before their eyes…

Noah heard a pained grunt of alarm from her uncle as the cloud broke in and washed over him.

"Uncle Reed…!" She made to approach him, but was thrown back as she too was hit by the massive force of energy a second after watching the same thing happen to Johnny just in front of her. All the air in her lungs was knocked clear out of her, a white hot flash coming off Johnny leaving her blind and immobile where she stood. All the heat she felt rolling off the blond in front of her pooled around her in an icy after wash, surrounding her and seemingly encasing her in a block of ice. Freezing air filled her pores, stabbing at her like thousands of icy needles being forced within her. It hurt like nothing she had ever felt before in all her life, the agony of it so shocking and mind numbing that she couldn't have made a sound if she'd wanted to.

Noah's head spun with the icy pain and she felt herself wobble on her legs against the cloud holding her up before she blacked out and fell back with the energy washing over her onto her back on the station floor…

* * *

Please Review and let me know what you think! Pardon any spelling/grammatical errors you might find. 


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she eight. What happens if she came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC

SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE REVIEWED THUS FAR. THANK YOU!

_Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. – Albert Einstein_

Awareness of herself and her body came back slowly; feeling in her limbs worked up from her fingers and toes throughout the rest of her in stunted waves. She couldn't see right away, and it sound as though her ears had been stuffed with cotton balls, but things slowly cleared out and she blinked rapidly up at an oak ceiling above her. The consistent 'BEEP-BEEP' of a heart monitor somewhere to her left rang loudly in her ears now and her head was throbbing something awful.

"Hey…"

The sound of a relief filled voice caught her attention and Noah slowly turned her head to the right to blink up at the tired face of her uncle. It took her a moment to realize she was even looking at him and it took a moment even longer for her brain to register the feel of the man's hand on her forearm. The slow reaction time made her frown.

"You're awake." Reed said, and Noah would have snorted at the man's pointing out of the obvious if she had felt like she even could. He gave her a smile, his voice lowered to a near whisper as he spoke to her – she was thankful for the soft tone. Her head hurt so badly. "How are you feeling?"

She took a deep breath and slowly shook her head, wincing at the slight movement. It took her two tries to get even the croak of a voice she managed out, "Head hurts."

"Yeah, I figured it might." Reed gave her a tired grin, "Apparently you banged your head pretty hard up on the station. I've been told you're suffering a mild concussion."

She frowned at the information she was given, hazel gaze looking over her uncle. She understood, but things were so muddled in her mind that it hurt to think. She heaved a sigh and shut her eyes, the lights above her head aggravating her headache, "How long have I been out?"

"Only about a day," Reed told her, his thumb gently brushing over her forearm in long, slow strokes. "It's nothing to be too worried about. You were awake yesterday when we first got here, but I figured you'd been out for at least two days after they medicated you…" He chuckled softly, "They've got you on some pretty strong stuff."

"I'm disinclined to believe you at the moment," She muttered with a grimace, "I feel like my brain is on fire. Or frozen maybe… my reaction time isn't doing so well, I don't think."

"Yeah?" Reed's brow furrowed and his dark eyes looked over his laid up niece, worry sinking into his stomach once more. He caught himself, shaking the worry from his mind and reminding himself the doctors had told him everything was fine with his niece. They'd even warned him that she could act rather sluggishly for a while once she woke up. "I wouldn't worry about that. It's probably all the medication."

Noah tossed the idea around for a moment and then managed a slow nod, "Probably." She paused for a deep breath before her brow furrowed once again and a flash of worry crossed her eyes, "What about Ben and the others? They ok?"

"Well, Ben and Sue are still out for the moment. Sue's responding well, but she hasn't woken up yet and it's the same for Ben. Both Johnny and I are up and well…" He tallied off in his head as he told her of the current conditions of each person on board the station when the cloud hit. "And Victor was within the central control shields upon impact, so the cloud never even reached him."

Noah's brow twitched as Reed spoke and her eyes closed, her fret squashed down for the time being. "Good… that's good. I'm glad."

Reed smiled down at his niece, a hand coming up to brush some wayward brown tresses from her face in an innately paternal fashion. He sighed, leaning over to press a soft kiss to the girl's forehead, smiling again when she chuckled pleasantly at the loving gesture her uncle bestowed upon her.

It was another two days before Ben and Sur woke from their comatose state of unconsciousness. The moment Ben's eyes fluttered open for the first time in three days, Noah was standing at the foot of his bed with Johnny perched upon a stool at the bald man's beside. She rolled her eyes at the blond as he tried to rouse the man from his slowly cracking slumber – the guy was just too much. It had only been three days since they'd gotten here and already Johnny was so antsy to get out that he had resorted to taunting others in a desperate attempt to entertain himself; just like he had done back when he was teenager.

"Heeey, raise and shine, Big-boy." Johnny greeted the other man as Ben followed his voice and looked up at him questioningly. Noah had to hand it to the blond; he was really good at keeping a straight face even while in mid-prank, though… she did find it a rather worthless talent to have. "How you feeling?"

"Where am I?" Ben asked, looking around again with a confused scowl on his face. Noah frowned as well – everyone else seemed to awaken with perfectly fine reaction times with her being the only exception thus far. She supposed it had to do with her concussion or something, but somehow she just didn't think it was as simple as that.

"Back on Earth." Johnny kept up his charade and Noah would be a liar if she claimed to not be even a little interested to see where this game of the blond's would lead. She watched him throw his hands up as he continued, "We're in quarantine – Victor's medical facility."

Ben looked at her and upon seeing she was fine next questioned the state of the others, "Reed? Sue?"

"Oh, they're fine." Johnny's voice slowed and dropped as he spoke, adding a bit of drama and suggestion to his game. "Everybody else is…fine."

Ben's hazy eyes immediately cleared as he fixed his gaze on the blond beside him. Noah had to bite her lip to keep from laughing as she watched this all unfold before her. "What's wrong with me?"

Johnny hesitated, going as far as to take a steadying breath before continuing with a tensely troubled expression school on his face. "I swear to you, Ben, they've done everything humanly possible. The best plastic surgeons in the world are here. Ben, you had the best."

The blond held up a palm to the bald man as Ben began to panic. The heart monitor beside him began to jack-rabbit along with his heart rate, the beeping coming faster and louder in everyone's ears. Ben reached for a mirror at his bedside, but Johnny grabbed it up before he could get to it.

"Give me that mirror."

"Aah…I don't know if that's a good idea…" Johnny explained slowly to the panicked man, "They said the shock alone…"

"I said give me that _god-damn_ mirror!" Ben demanded this time and Johnny gave it up to him, playing at reluctant and placing his hands on his hips as Ben snatched the mirror away. With Ben distracted, Johnny looked over at Noah with a wink and trouble-making grin on his handsome face. The girl shook her head at him and sighed, smirking slightly despite herself.

"Ben, just… be strong." The blond man added as Ben flexed his fingers around the handle of the mirror.

Ben slowly lifted the mirror, the frenzied beep of the monitor beside him an indication of the worry and fear that was gripping him. Inch by inch the mirror came up until finally, Ben was looking at his own visage in the reflective glass. Upon seeing his own face, Johnny clapped his hands loudly beside the man.

"Unfortunately," The blond told the man as he slowly eased away from the bed. He backed up towards the door, palms pressed together as if in prayer and a wide smirk stretching his cunning lips, "the doctors just couldn't do anything to fix your face."

Bens face curled in a growl and he sat up enough to hurl the mirror at Johnny. The blond cackled, running full out from the room and barely dodging the mirror – the innocent thing smashed against the wall, the glass shattering into a million tiny pieces and glittering dangerously on the title floor. Noah heaved another sigh, shaking her head as Ben breathed roughly in his rage at the blond.

"He's bored. Just ignore him, Ben." She told the man softly from the foot of his bed, a small, weary smile on her soft lips.

"Yeah, well, it's easier said than done." The bald man growled, and his heart rate slowly calmed on the monitor.

"True." She chuckled, shaking her head. She looked the man over slowly, tilting her head as she moved to sit on the edge of his bed, "Now seriously… how are you?"

Shifting on his bed, Ben grimaced a bit and then settled once more. "I've felt better. How're you?"

She shrugged, "No worse for wear, I suppose."

"And your uncle?"

"He's fine too. He was in here with us a little bit ago, but I think he went to go check on Sue," She told him with a calm expression on her lovely face. "She only just woke up yesterday herself. She's resting right now in her own room."

"Good." Ben nodded, taking a deep breath and relaxing just a bit on his bed. He scowled, "And I guess the hot-head made it out alright too. Unfortunately."

She chuckled, "Yes, well, as much as it pains me to admit it, I'm thinking we should follow his example." She chuckled again when Ben gave her an odd look, "He's been running around here with nowhere to go for three days, jumping all over the place like a five year old in Disney Land. It's getting on everyone's nerves, but… I've noticed moving around and being active clears things up faster. It gets easier the longer you're up and about."

"Jesus…" Ben shook his head, looking exasperated already, "who'd have thought, huh? That dumb meat-head's actually doing something right for a change."

Noah nodded, amused, and stood up from Ben's bed. "I know, I was pretty flabbergasted myself at first." She nodded her head towards the door, "But anyway, get up and dressed. I promise you'll start to feel better after you've moved around a bit."

Ben nodded and she left the room to leave the man to his business.

"Come on, Noah, please?"

She shook her head, scowling at the pages of the book she read. "Johnny, for the thousandth time, no. We were told to stay put inside the facility until we've all been cleared. I'm not going anywhere, least of all with you."

"Aw, come _on_!" The blond groaned unhappily, arms gripping the arm rest as he squatted down beside the chair Noah sat in. He looked about ready to pop. "We've been here forever-"

"It's only been three days!" She interrupted him, looking at the blond like he had lost his mind.

He carried on as though she'd never said a word, "-I'm losing my mind in this place! I've got to get out there and _do_ something."

"Well, I'm not coming with you."

"Alright then, look at it this way," The bond smirked, thinking this new tactic of his would grant him his victory, "I'm leaving with or without you. You can either come along and keep me out of trouble, or I can go alone and wreak all sorts of havoc that you could have easily prevented by coming with me."

Her eyes returned to the pages of her book, "The answer is no."

"Why not?" He right out whined and Noah had to refrain from looking at him in utter and complete disgust, "You can't tell me you aren't bored with this place."

"I'm not bored, Johnny. You're the only one who has a problem with being here." She flipped the page "And besides, I'd rather stay put than tag along with you to supervise your whoring of yourself off to the first bimbo you can find out here."

"Whoring? I'm not whoring myself off to anyone!" Johnny glowered at her as he stood upright beside her chair. Noah just shot him an unconvinced look and then returned to her reading. He scoffed irritably at her, "Fine. Stay here and bore your brains out with the rest of the old losers in this place."

Noah chuckled, nodding distractedly, "I will."

He scowled down at her for a long moment, "What are you even reading anyway?" She sighed heavily and lifted the book to show the title off to him. He grimaced, "'_The Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe_'…? You'd rather read some weird ass stories by some old dead guy than tear it up on the snow?" He sounded absolutely stunned by this.

"Have you ever even read his work before, Johnny?" She scoffed at him this time and shook her head. "Maybe if you'd give it a try you'd understand his genius…"

"Come on, Noah," He sounded whiny again and she really just wanted to smack him for it, "you skate. Skiing and snowboarding are a lot like skating, aren't they? Come on…"

"Christ, Johnny, would you give it a rest?" She snapped at him, turning irritated hazel eyes on him, "I don't want to go skiing or whatever with you! Let it go! Why are you so keen on getting me out there anyway?"

"Did you ever think that maybe I just wanted you to _approve_ of me?" Johnny taunted her with her own words from their argument on the station.

She glared at him, closing her book with a sharp snap and stood up from her chair. "You're an asshole." And with that she stomped away from the room and Johnny, leaving the blond as he rolled his eyes and scowled after her.

Several hours later found Noah sitting in another chair in another part of the facility, scowling into the pages of her book. She was still sore a Johnny for the way he had thrown her own words back at her like he had, taunting her with them. It had been cruel, in her opinion, and only justified her hatred for the blond. He really hadn't changed at all. It was a shame, really, but she wasn't surprised in the least by it.

"Once an asshole, always an asshole," She muttered to herself. With a frown, she pulled the sweater she had found a little while ago tighter around herself. She'd gotten so cold within the last hour or so, surprisingly cold. Shockingly cold, even. She'd never been one to get cold before and didn't understand the sudden change, and the sweater she was wearing wasn't really helping all that much. What frightened her the most was that she wasn't really even reading her book anymore, she was paying more attention to her breathing… every now and then she swore she could see her breath come out in a puff of thin mist.

The doors to the room swung open with a loud bang, making Noah jump. She turned around sharply, expression as startled as she felt, and her eyes landed on a very bare Johnny shuffling up to her hurriedly. Her nose curled in alarm and disgust at his state of undress - the man was wearing nothing but a pink snow jacket wrapped low around his hips.

"Noah!" Johnny exclaimed, overlooking the expression on her face, "My god, you're never going to believe what just happened to me!"

"Uh…" Noah forced herself to look up at the man's face, alarmed to feel her face heat up in a flush upon seeing him like this. She was thankful Johnny was in too much of a frenzy to notice her blushing. "You were successful in the whoring off of your body to the first dumb bimbo you came across…?"

"What?" He frowned at her, waving her words off with a forceful flinging of his arm. "No! What the hell are you-? No, never mind, just come on!" He reached out and grabbed a hold of her wrist, pulling her up from her seat and knocking her book off her lap to the floor as he dragged her, protests and all, along with him across the room and through another set of doors.

"Johnny! Stop it!" Noah was shouting by the time they finally came across Reed and Sue in the dining hall of the facility. They both had rather muddled looks on their faces, head's whirling around as she and Johnny entered the room. She finally managed to wrench herself free of the blond's hold as he turned his attention to the two taken aback elders.

"Hey! You guys!" Johnny exclaimed, "You are _never_ gonna believe what just happened to me..!"

Reed arched a brow, looking from Johnny to Noah. The girl felt herself flushing again, arms hugging herself within her less then helpful sweater, "Don't look at me! I don't know what the hell he's been doing! I was reading when he came crashing through the room like a crazy person!"

"What?" Johnny looked at them all in confusion and upon seeing them looking him over strangely, looked down at himself in realization. He wasn't nearly as started by his appearance as everyone else was. "Oh. Well, I can explain this…"

Noah arched a brow at him, "Believe me, Johnny. We don't want to know."

"No, seriously, listen for a second..!" He gestured wildly at her, the look on his face borderline insane. "I was out –out-out on the mountain and stuff, right? Snowboarding right? With this crazy hot nurse name Grace, yeah, this is her's by the way. She let me borrow it after we got out of the hot spring, bath thing I-"

"Johnny," Sue interrupted him, much to Noah's relief. "Move on, please. We don't need to hear about Grace and the hot spring…"

"Fine. Sure." He shrugged, "So picture this then… I'm boarding, right? Tearing down the slope, going, god… I don't know. Going pretty damn fast. I'm amazing, alright? So I'm boarding when BAM! All of a sudden I'm on frig'n _fire_!"

He had his free hand outstretched before them, face glowing and chest heaving like he just told them the answer to the meaning of life. When no one responded, Johnny waved that outstretched hand around, "No really! On fire! There were flames!"

Noah just shook her head at him, "Jesus, you're such an idiot."

"No, really!"

"Sure…" She scowled at him, "Are you drunk?"

"I'm serious, Noah! I was on _fire_!"

They started bickering all over again until Reed stood from the table he and Sue had been sharing. He held up his palm, quieting the both of them with a look of absolute seriousness on his face. "Ok, settle down. Regardless of whatever happened with Johnny…" Reed looked the blond over again and shook his head in exasperation at his near nudity, "Something strange is in fact taking place."

"What do you mean?" Noah asked, rubbing a hand against her arm to warm her chilled skin.

"I mean… well…" The man looked to Sue for help, but the blonde had nothing to help with. She just shrugged and started inspecting her hands critically, as though watchful for something unusual to happen. Reed shrugged as well, "Just… strange things." He motioned for them to all follow him out of the dining hall, "Come on, let's just find Ben. He was feeling odd earlier – maybe something's up with him as well."

The group followed him, Sue falling into step beside Reed and Noah coming up close behind them. She listened as the two elders of their little group argued back and forth about the possibility of the cloud somehow altering their DNA or something of the like. It was hard for Noah to concentrate on what they were saying what with Johnny goofing off behind her the whole way to Ben's room. She could hear Johnny messing around behind her; he had started snapping his fingers in rapid succession and just as she was about to lose her temper with him all over again, the blond called for their attention.

"Whoa! Guys! Look…!"

They all turned about to look at the younger Storm sibling, mouths falling open in amazement at what they were seeing. Johnny shuffled up to them, one hand clasping the pink jacket around his waist tightly and the other held up in front of him, thumb glowing as a long wisp of crackling flame shot up from the tip. He snapped his fingers and the flame went out before their eyes. Snapping them again, fingers rubbing against his thumb, producing friction against the skin, and the flame shot back up before them. Noah turned to look at her uncle, seeing him with an identical confounded look on his face. This was impossible…

Johnny put out the flame again and took in a deep breath. "Now, picture that… but _everywhere_!" His hand gestured about himself wildly, blue eyes wide and excited as he tried to explain himself to everyone. "It was…_everywhere_!" He shrugged, starting to sound breathless in his excitement, looking to them all in turn and still gesturing wildly about himself. "_What_? What _is_ that?"

They all looked to Reed next. The man hesitated and then with a breath responded slowly, "…the cloud had fundamentally altered our DNA."

Johnny laughed loudly as the rest took a moment to let this information sink in. What they were suggesting… it was nothing short of amazing, or crazy, more likely. Reed held his hand up for silence again, his brow furrowed in that way Noah knew so well. She'd seen him wear it a million times before while struggling to understand some complex idea or equation.

"Ok, hold on a minute," the dark haired scientist said slowly, "let's take a look at this. Sue, you were… invisible, right? And Johnny's on fire. And I… well; I stretched in a most unnatural manner." He shook his head, looking to Noah, "And you? Has anything odd been happening to you, Noah?"

She frowned, shaking her head slowly, "No."

"Nothing at all?" Reed pressed, "You're sure?"

"I'm sure, uncle Reed." She shrugged, "I've just been reading all day. Nothing strange has happened… not until Johnny came rushing in a little while ago."

"Yeah, well that's because you're boring," Johnny told her snidely. "Just like your stupid book."

"Shut up, Johnny."

Reed cut into their blossoming argument, giving them both a sharp look. "Ok. So with the exception of Noah, the rest of us are showing signs, symptoms even, caused by exposure to the cloud." He shook his head again; worry creasing his brow once more, "We need to find Ben. He might be showing symptoms as well…"

They carried on down the hall once more, an extra push in their steps as they hurried to Ben's room. Johnny snapped his flame on and off over and over behind Noah's head the entire rest of the way to the bald man's room. She was grinding her teeth in aggravation with the blond by the time the Ben's door came into sight.

"I said cut it out, Johnny."

"Ooh, she's getting angry." Johnny taunted with another snap of his fingers, "Hey, maybe you're like The Hulk. Think you'll turn green and ugly if you get mad enough?"

"Johnny…"

"Maybe you should start practicing that catch phrase of his. Say it," His voice fell an octave, rough and coarse in his throat, "… '_you won't like me when I'm angry_'."

Another snap of his fingers and Noah whipped around just as her uncle reached Ben's door. She glared threateningly at the blond behind her, brown curls hanging heavily against the side of her face. "Stop it."

"Or what?" The blond smirked tauntingly. He snapped his flame on and off in her face.

"I swear to god, Johnny Storm, stop it right now or I'll kill you. Ok? I'll _kill_ you."

"Alright," He shrugged nonchalantly at her.

"Alright?" She fixed him with a hard look.

"Yes."

"Gahd!"

"Gahd!"

"What's _wrong_ with you?"

"_What_?"

"You're such a child!"

Catching his bottom lip between his teeth, Johnny baited the younger girl on with a snap of his fingers in her face. The flame shot up and she gave a cry of alarm at the proximity of it. Her hand shot up as if to defend herself from the heat and instead startled herself even more so when a

tingling numbed her fingers and the flame in Johnny's hand turned to solid ice. The blond gasped in alarm as well, dropping the frozen flame to the floor where it shattered at their feet. They looked at each other with wide eyes, equally as startled by what Noah had just done and then looked to Reed and Sue trying to open up Ben's door – they had paused long enough to look troubled as well. It seemed Noah wasn't excluded in this oddity of theirs after all.

A mighty rumbling of a growl filtered in from behind Ben's door and their attention returned to finding a way inside. Sue was trying in vain to figure out the code to the door while Reed gapped at what he was seeing from the window in the door. Finally, after listening to Johnny calling out for help from people that nowhere to be found around the facility and his suggestion of breaking the glass in the door, Reed sank down onto his knees in front of the door. They all watched as he lowered his hand to the base of the door and his hand and arm easily slipped through the space between the floor and door. Stretching the limb out, the male Richards of the group managed to unlock the door for them and slide his hand back out to its proper place beside him once more.

"That's gross." Johnny broke the silence around them and grimaced at what he had just witnessed. Noah rolled her eyes at him.

Something smashed inside Ben's room and they all charged in. What they saw was more alarming then any kind of symptoms they might have been showing. The far wall of the room was in ruin, a huge hole in the center with crumbling stone and shattered glass littering the floor all around it. Ben had obviously torn a hole through the wall in his hurry to leave the compound… something was wrong with him as well, it seemed.

"Look!" Johnny pointed out beyond the hole, "Looklooklooklook…!"

The all stepped forward to see a large… thing moving out towards the trees and away from the facility. From behind them, Victor von Doom walked into the room, demanding to know what had been going on in the ruin of a room – Sue and Reed handled it while Noah and Johnny both watched the thing disappear into the shadows of the trees.

"What is that thing?" Johnny asked from somewhere over Noah's shoulder.

"I… think it's Ben." Noah answered, sounding troubled and confused. "He must have reacted badly to the cloud's exposure. More so then the rest of us… he was out there with it for a while before we could get him in. And he was in direct contact with it first and must have been hit with a second wave when it broke through the shields. He had more exposure time then the rest of us."

Johnny nodded his head beside her, one arm braced on what was left of the wall, but Noah questioned how much he had gotten out of her words. He tilted his head back to look around at everyone once Victor had left them alone once more. "Anybody got any ideas where the big guy's going?"

"He's going home." Reed said, making the educated guess upon seeing Ben's photograph of him and Debbie on the floor along with the rubble of the wall.

* * *

REVIEW PLEASE! please excuse any and all spelling/grammatical errors you might find while reading... 


	4. Chapter 3

I JUST REALIZED A FEW MOMENTS AGO THAT THE LAST CHAPTER I UPLOADED AS CHAPTER 3 WAS ACTUALLY CHAPTER 2 AGAIN. I'M SORRY! HERE'S THE REAL NEXT CHAPTER...

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she eight. What happens if she came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC

_It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. – J.K. Rowling_

Noah had been truly dismayed later that day when she, Reed, Sue and Johnny all hailed a cab upon leaving Victor's medical facility with the intent of locating Ben. Sue was sitting up front in the passenger seat by the driver while she was wedged between her uncle and Johnny in the back seat. The blond had been complaining and shifting around the entire ride out into the city. Noah was just about at her wit's end by the time they got on the bridge.

"I'm just saying, if you guys would have just let us borrow one of Victor's cars, I could have driven and we'd be there by now. It's not like he would have missed the thing – he's got five!"

"Shut up, Johnny."

"He would have gladly handed over the keys if Sue would have asked him, I bet." The blond gestured at the back of the seat his sister sat in.

"Jesus, don't you ever shut up?" Noah all but shouted at the man beside her despite the look her uncle gave her. "We're all anxious to find Ben, alright? All your talking isn't helping matters!"

"I'm making conversation."

"No you aren't, you've done nothing but whine since we left Victor's."

"My voice has been known to have a calming effect on people."

"No it doesn't, it just gives people a headache!" She scowled at him, "Now shut up, or I'll freeze your lips together."

Reed was shaking his head at the two of them as Johnny took to staring at Noah. The girl turned her face away, looking irritable and tried to ignore the blond's eyes on her. She glanced over a moment later to see he was still staring, lips slightly parted and brow furrowed just so.

"What?"

"You know," He began, "if you weren't such a prude you could really give the term 'blue balls' a whole new meaning."

Noah curled her nose at him, "You're disgusting."

"No, really, think about it…"

"I don't want to think about it!"

Johnny laughed at her open display of disgust, only angering her further with his amusement at her expense. 

"Hey, hey," Reed interrupted their bickering, acting very much like a father settling his quarreling children down, "Cool it, alright?"

As Reed spoke, the cab came to a sudden stop. The sound of crashing metal and horns up ahead for told of the accident long before they all climbed out of the cab to look out beyond at the wreckage ahead. Several cars and a large big-rig were all smashed together, smoke and debris was all over the place. Somehow they all knew Ben was out there in the middle of the carnage, but with the police already out and holding bystanders back from the crash, they also knew they had no hope of getting through to him.

"What do we do now?" Noah asked, craning her neck in an attempt to see over and past all the noisy people.

"We're not gonna get past these guys…" Reed began and then looked to Sue, "but you could." The blonde woman looked at him incredulously. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and immediately became transparent to all those around her. Noah blinked in surprise, having had not yet witnessed Sue's powers before now. Reed looked around nervously, "Sue – your clothes. Lose them."

"Oh. Right." She started tugging off her blazer and then next her shirt.

Johnny shifted uncomfortably beside Noah and the girl smirked at him. He was turning away, facing her more so now then the invisible Sue. "This is so wrong…" he muttered under his breath.

"She's invisible, Johnny." Noah told him with a smirk, "It's not like you can even see anything."

"That's not the point." He grit out, turning back despite his words. As he did, Sue apparently had become rather self conscious and became visible once more. Johnny groaned unhappily, head whipping away again – Noah couldn't help but snicker at him. "It's not funny, Noah."

"I think it's hilarious."

Sue tried to cover herself, alarmed and embarrassed. Johnny's hands were on his hips now, the blond turning this way and that, trying to ignore the fact that his sister was standing half naked before him. Reed just stared at Sue in barely contained awe – Noah rolled her eyes at her uncle.

"Wow. You've been working out." The male Richards commented and Noah groaned at his lack of tact.

"Shut up!" Sue growled at him. She grabbed up her blazer and tried to cover herself with it. "Any more great ideas? Why don't you strip down and have a hundred people stare at you!" She yelled at Reed, visibility waning once more before them.

"Sue…" Reed nodded to her sudden gone body.

"What?" She looked at herself, seeing right through herself. "Oh." She dropped her blazer and proceeded to shuck her bra and panties as well.

"I'm gonna need therapy…" Johnny muttered beside Noah again. His eyes were carefully trained on the road under his feet; even Reed looked a bit awkward now.

"You needed it before." Noah informed him, "I'm glad to see you finally agree."

"Shut up, Noah." He scowled, looking out towards all the people crowded around them, "If Reed was stripping you'd be just as disturbed as I am."

"Yes, but he isn't and your unease amuses me."

Reed nudged Johnny, interrupting the two of them once again once the remainder of Sue's clothes had dropped to the ground. "Hey, come on. Let's get out of here."

The blond nodded, happy to oblige and get away from his invisible and very naked sister. Noah bent to collect Sue's clothes before following them away from the crowd. She could hear Sue forcing her way through the crowd, knocking people aside in her wake.

Eventually, Reed managed to find a way to get the rest of them beyond the police while they were distracted with the commotion Sue's disappearance had caused. The blonde woman materialized shortly after and dressed again behind the wreckage of several vehicles. The siren of a fire truck was wailing in the distance as they all branched out in search for Ben –Reed and Sue went one way and Johnny followed Noah in the other.

From the corner of her eye, Noah saw Sue stand up on the hood of a car, scanning the bridge and maze of crashed and smashed cars littering the road, calling out for Ben. Johnny was about three cars behind her and Reed was a ways further down, calling out as well. Suddenly, Sue gasped and tensed up and Noah followed her eyes and knew then that they all had seen the bald man responding to the call of his name.

"My god…" Noah whispered to herself. She'd never seen anything like it – it was as if the man was made entirely of orange stone.

Through his wonder at seeing Ben's state, Johnny felt a tremor up his spine and all at once looked to Noah. Her back was facing him, the younger girl looking to Ben with a hand loosely clamped over her mouth in awe. Glancing back from her he saw a red tank and could practically _feel_ it rattling under the pressure the heat around it was building up inside of it. Without thinking, the blond jumped onto a car and propelled himself up to Noah just as the tank exploded, its contents setting off a wicked hot flare of explosive fire – the blast was thrown outward towards Noah and Johnny managed to place himself between the girl and the fire a second before it reached her. He grabbed her from behind, arms wrapping around her like a vise as he shielded her with his own body. Cars were being thrown skyward and down the bridge from the blast, but Johnny remained wrapped around Noah with the flames licking at his head and back, but causing no damage what so ever. At most, he felt a warm tingle against his spine… it was actually more soothing then anything for him.

Once the deadly blast had gone its course, Johnny's bruising grip around Noah loosened and the blond craned his neck around to see both Reed and Sue had managed to protect themselves as well. The fire truck now dangling precariously over the side of the bridge, however, had not been as lucky as they had. He felt Noah turning in his embrace around her to look at him and his attention returned to her once more.

"You ok?" He asked, noticing how heavily they were both breathing. She nodded, staring up at him with wide, startled eyes and he would have laughed at the look had the situation been a bit different. Grabbing onto her wrist, Johnny nodded towards the dangling fire truck, "Come on."

She was too dazed to argue as he pulled her along through the throng of smashed cars. Ben was already there, struggling to pull the truck safely back onto the bridge. Noah could see her uncle was there as well. Johnny sprinted on ahead of her and she watched as a man hanging from the end of the truck's ladder fell to his death off the bridge and towards the water below – a collective gasp from bystanders rang out shrilly around her, but Reed caught the man. Arms stretching out to an insane length and grabbing the man from his free fall and pulled him right back up to safety. Soon after, Ben managed to pull the truck from the edge of the bridge and disaster was avoided once again.

Noah reached out a hand towards several burning cars and smoking bits of metal, the tingle returned to her hand as she smothered the cracking flames with a blast of ice and frozen wind. She let out a heavy breath afterward, surprise matching those of the people watching her as she looked over her tingling palm with a breathless grin and a shake of her head. That had been pretty cool… no pun intended.

The police swooped down on Ben, meaning to shoot or arrest him in some manner, but the crowd on the bridge wasn't having any of that – calling him a hero and demanding he be left alone. Noah ran up to her uncle, seeing him flexing his fingers tenderly and shaking out his arms – the man grinned and waved her worry away. But the man's attention on her was soon swept away and Noah followed his gaze over to Ben to see the man standing before Debbie. Noah's heart broke as she watched the woman remove the engagement ring Ben had given her only a few months before and placed it on the ground before hurrying away from Ben forever.

Ben bent to pick the diamond ring up, but soon grew frustrated. His fingers were too big to pluck the ring from the ground and he grit his teeth together.

Noah watched her uncle kneel beside his old friend, picking the ring up for him and placing it in the palm of Ben's hand. They looked at each other for a tense moment before standing. Reed faced his friend, words coming out strong and determined, "I swear to you… I will do everything in my power, until there is not a breath left in me –" He grabbed his friend's shoulders, more sincerity in his eyes then Noah had ever seen before, "You're gonna be Ben again."

Ben nodded slowly.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

She'd never felt more awkward or self-conscious approaching someone in all her life as she did right now. Her stomach was bunching up inside of her, nerves threatening to make her hands shake like they had use to do while presenting a project to her teacher and classmates in high school. Who would have ever thought that she could feel like this ever again – especial when all she was doing was walking up to Johnny Storm. He was sitting on the edge of a table that had been set up inside the tent the medical technicians were using as a base on the bridge; they'd all been forced to come inside here for a quick medical check and to wait for whoever it was that was eventually going to come and talk to them.

Taking a deep breath, Noah set her jaw tightly and slipped over beside Johnny. She felt him look up and over at her when she sat on the table edge beside him, but he didn't say anything and apparently didn't think much of the action.

"Johnny…" she began, brow deeply furrowed, fingers fidgeting in her lap and gaze cast downward to the ground. He hummed questioningly, looking at her once more. "I just… I wanted to thank you."

"For what?"

"For…earlier." She glanced up, nodding her head to the side and outside the tent. "On the bridge. When that tank exploded and all."

"Oh." The blond seemed to understand now, growing still and looking at her a little too intensely for her liking. She shifted uncomfortably. 

"I probably would have been killed…" She trailed off, not looking at him again. "So… thank you. Thank you for stepping in like that."

The blond shrugged one shoulder, grinning like his old self again. "Yeah, well, what can I say? I'm just an amazingly thoughtful individual." One of his hands came up and ruffled her hair, mussing it and making her scowl. He chuckled, but the look swiftly became a tad bit serious as a thought struck him. "Hey, wait a minute… doesn't this mean you owe me now?"

She had a feeling she knew where this was going and her expression made her feelings towards it clearly known. "I already expressed my gratitude. I don't _owe_ you anything, Johnny."

"No, I'm pretty sure you do." The blond smirked. Ben, sitting nearby with the ring Debbie had left behind in his palm, shook his head at the way the younger man practically leered at Noah, but said nothing about it. "Don't people who owe their life to someone typically become the rescuer's personal slave or something?"

"Do I look like the kind of person to care about what people typically do?" Her lip curled distastefully, "I said thank you. That should be enough."

"Well, I don't think it is."

"Well, that's just too bad for you."

"You owe me your life, Noah." Johnny gave her a sly-ish look, sighing heavily around his words, "I mean, I didn't _have_ to put myself in danger like that. I _threw_ myself between you and a fiery inferno… I could have just let you bite it, you know."

"M-mm, yes, but then I would be dead and you would have had to live with knowing you could have prevented my death but didn't." She gave him a cross look, "Besides, it's not like you even got hurt in the process."

"I don't know…" He smirked, leaning further towards her and puckering his lips just so, "I think I got a little singed around the mouth. Kiss it better for me?"

"Try it and I'll punch you."

"No seriously," Johnny chuckled, "One kiss and we'll call it even. Your debt will be repaid."

Noah gave him a funny look, eyes slowly narrowing. She seemed to be considering it and that alone stretched that smirk on Johnny's lips wider. When she leaned towards him he figured for sure he had won. But she didn't kiss him, instead just hung there, just out of reach of his mouth and scoffed at him, "Not on your life, hot-head." She pushed off the table and walked away.

Johnny scowled to himself.

A chuckle of halfhearted amusement reached Johnny's ears and he turned to see Ben looking at him from the corner of his eyes. "You're dumber than I thought. You didn't actually think it'd be that easy, did you?"

Ben turned his eyes back to the ring in his palm, large stone finger gently tapping at the gold band and shining diamond. He looked miserable and sad staring at it like that. Johnny just looked at the man good and long, silent. It was short lived though.

"Where are your ears?"

Ben blinked. He slowly lifted his head again, turning it to face Johnny and stare at him, devoid of amusement. He looked like he could strangle the blond right then and there and not care in the least that he had done it – he probably would have, had he had the will to so much as even sand up at that moment. Johnny just pursed his lips and lifted his brows challengingly, mockingly – pay back, in a way, for his comment concerning his failure to lure Noah into a kiss.

The next moment and a black officer wearing a firemen's coat came into the tent with them. He jabbed a thumb back towards the way he had come as he spoke to Reed, "There are some folks outside that want to talk to you."

Reed looked scandalized by this information, "We're not going public with this. We're scientists, not celebrities."

Noah scoffed at her uncle, eyes on the screen of a television playing towards the back of the tent. The sound was too low for anything said to be heard, but the gist of what was being reported could clearly be seen just by watching the images. She pointed at the screen, "I think it's a little too late for that…"

"She's right," the officer nodded. He stepped forward and proceeded to hike up the volume on the television so they could all hear the report. "Listen."

_[…when a New York Fire Department ladder truck became part of the tragedy. But the rescue itself is not the story._

Everyone's attention had effectively been grabbed by the report and they all stared at the screen. Some, like Reed, in horror, but others in awe and pleasure – namely Johnny. He looked absolutely thrilled to be seeing himself on television like that.

_[One of the five stretched to an amazing length-_

"Wait, what's that about?" Noah asked, pointing out the words 'The Fantastic Five' typed in large white print along the bottom of the screen.

The officer standing with them smiled at her, gesturing to the television, "That's what they're calling you. The Fantastic Five."

"Cool!" Johnny's eyes were wide and bright as he turned to jog out of the tent. Noah could see his intent to get on t.v. once more clearly in his shining blue eyes.

"No, wait!" Sue called after him. "Where are you going?"

He paused only to answer her, "I'm gonna go talk to 'em."

"No!" Sue snapped, looking from Johnny to Reed sternly for support, "We should think this through."

"That's great." Johnny gestured around at the rest of them, "Brainstorm." And he was gone.

"Oh, god…" Noah muttered, hurrying after the blond, "Somebody stop him before he makes a bigger mess of this situation!"

"Get back here right now! Johnny!" Sue called after her brother as well, following up behind Noah.

Noah caught the blond just as he was stepping out in front of the reporters. His hands were held up and out to everyone, a huge, self indulgent smile on his face as cameras rolled and pictures snapped away at him. She latched onto his forearm, gritting his name out angrily through a clenched jaw and tried to pull him back. He just turned her grip off of him and draped an arm over her shoulders, pulling her in with him.

"Settle down! Settle down!" The blond was saying to the crowd, ignoring the way Noah scowled and tried to pull away from him. The clattering reporters only seemed to get louder as questions began to get shouted at them and the rest of the group coming up behind them.

"Do you believe this?" Johnny asked as Reed came up to his other side. The scientist just frowned at the blond for his brazenness.

"Which one of you is the leader?" The same officer from before, the Battalion chief, stepped between them and the crowd.

"That would be me." Johnny said.

"Ha!" Noah snorted loudly, finally throwing the blond's arm off of her with a furious huff. "You couldn't lead a small dog on a leash if your life depended on it, let alone a group of people." He scowled at her for the comment.

The chief chuckled, "No, seriously."

They all looked at Reed, minus a pouting Johnny. Sue nodded at him, nudging him forward.

"Ok then." The chief said, "You're on…" And Reed stepped up before the reports at the head of their group.

"Why can't I be the leader?" Johnny muttered from beside Noah. 

She scoffed at him again, "Because you're an idiot with no self-control and no sense of propriety." 

"Uh…" Reed began and the chatter slowly died down as he explained themselves to everyone, "during our recent mission to the Von Doom space station we… we were exposed to an as-yet unidentified radioactive energy."

"What happened on the bridge?" A man with a microphone that read 'City' called out over the rest of the reports.

"How can you stretch?" Another man asked Reed.

"Is it true you can fly?" A woman directed to Johnny this time and the blond scowled at her.

"Yeah, I'm working on it." He pointed at her, "It's actually very difficult-"

"No, actually," Sue cut in, "we do not know much more than you do at this point. We will be going directly to our lab to diagnose our symptoms."

"Symptoms?" A reporter asked, concern lacing her words, "Is this some kind of disease?"

Reed and Sue both tried to answer, but Johnny jumped in. He stepped up to the foreground next to Reed and Sue. "No! No, no, no. It's not a disease." He made a face at the very idea and then grinned that self indulgent grin of his once again, "Symptoms? If having special powers is a disease, then, yeah, we got it bad."

"Excuse me," The man with the 'City' microphone questioned again. He pointed at Ben. "That thing doesn't look so fantastic."

Noah held out a hand to Ben's chest as he started forward defensively, stopping the man before he got too angry with the reporter's insensitive remark.

Reed jumped in again, brows furrowed as he spoke with conviction. "Ben Grimm is a genuine American Hero. Please-"

"What he means is," Johnny started again. He looped one arm around Ben's stony shoulders and the other around Noah's once more, positioning himself between the two of them. "Every team needs a mascot."

Everyone in their group scowled and set their jaws tightly. The reporters, though, chuckled.

"A new day is dawning." Johnny ignored his friends' displeasure, "That day of the Fantastic Five!"

The chattering amongst the reporters started anew, but Noah wasn't paying attention to them anymore. She was staring straight up at Johnny, entire body jostled now and then with the way he was shaking her with the arm he had around her shoulders. She looked like she could spit nails at the blond – he obviously didn't get how sensitive Ben was to his condition and how the blond's mockery had stung him.

Johnny looked down at her, seeing the look on her face. "What?"

"No propriety. None." She snapped at him, aware that the reporters were listening. She shook her head angrily, shoving his arm off of her with an icy hand and looped around to stand beside Sue – distancing herself from the blond man and ignoring his presence all together.

Johnny frowned, wincing at the cold in his arm. A thin layer of frost had built up on the sleeve of his leather jacket, courtesy of one angry girl with the power to manipulate ice.

The reporters' questions built up again, growing louder and louder with each second pass.

"Look – Look," Reed shouted over the multitude of voices, "we went up to space to find a way to understand DNA; cure disease, save lives. Well, now it's our DNA, our 'disease', our lives on the line." He heaved a heavy sigh, moving to turn away from the crowd. "Thank you. No more questions."

Reed walked away from the still screaming reporters and Sue, Ben and Noah all followed him. Noah didn't bother to turn and see if Johnny was with them or not. Her anger with the blond vastly outweighed her caring for whether he was there or not.

* * *

Please Review and let me know what you think! Pardon any spelling/grammatical errors you might find.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she eight. What happens if she came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC

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_Don't mind criticism. If it is untrue, disregard it; if unfair, keep from irritation; if it is ignorant, smile; if it is justified it is not criticism, learn from it._

Johnny acted like a rock star all the way back to the Baxter Building and once they got out, entering the place Noah and Reed called home, it got even worse. He'd slid on a pair of shades, held his hands up and out like a celebrity greeting his hundreds of adoring fans – that Johnny Storm grin of his was plastered on his face, as always, and Noah was pretty sure in that moment that she hated the blond. She'd decided that to heck with reason and chances and kindness and that 'treat others as you'd like to be treated' garbage Reed had taught her as a child; she hated Johnny Storm for the way he had so uncaringly talked to those reporters about Ben. So as they walked to the front door of the building, Noah was sure to stick as far from the blond as possible. 

"He's acting like an idiot." Noah muttered irritably to her uncle, scowling at the way the blond was acting for the crowd around the building.

"He's just…" Reed struggled for a suitable word.

"An idiot?"

He chuckled, "I was going to say overzealous; fervent even. But that works too, I suppose."

"Welcome back to the Baxter, Dr. Richards." The mail man, Wilbert Grayson, greeted them in his usual cheery manner as they all entered the building. He dug into his mail bag and pulled out several letters bound together with a rubber band and handed them to Reed, "I've got the usual for you."

"Thanks, Willie." Reed smiled, but then sighed heavily as he flipped through all the bills and notices in the stack. He saw Sue looking over his shoulder at them. He shrugged, "We had a tough year."

"Yeah, more like nine straight." Ben grumbled as they all piled into the elevator.

Willie handed Noah a small stack of mail herself, "Glad to have you back as well, Miss Noah."

She smiled at the elderly man, accepting her mail from him. "Good to be back. Have you brought me some good news?"

The man smiled, shaking his head with a chuckle as he made to leave the building. "No idea, Miss. You'll let me know though if you do?"

"Of course." She smiled back at him, turning to flip through her mail same as Reed had done.

Johnny was there, suddenly, reaching for her mail nosily. "What good news? From what?"

"Mind your own business." She snapped, clutching her letters to her chest and scowling angrily at the blond. She stomped off away from him and into the elevator with the others. Johnny came in behind her and she glared at him the entire time.

The doors closed and Reed punched in the button for their floor. The elevator lurched, attempting to climb up its shaft, but failed with a horrible whine of metal and wire.

Johnny cocked a brow, "Either we're moving really fast… or not at all."

Noah frowned at him and looked up as the elevator alarm buzzed angrily at them. A warning lit up in bright red light – 'Exceed Maximum Weight'. Everyone's eyes immediately swooped over to Ben, despite their best efforts not to be accusing. The stony man heaved a sigh, looking put out and tired.

"I'll take the stairs…" Ben shuffled out of the elevator, looking back at them before turning away completely.

Johnny chuckled softly and Noah turned a glare at him. Practically sneering at the blond, she left the elevator as well, "I'll go with Ben."

Once the door had shut and the elevator lurched upward as it was supposed to, Johnny scowled at his feet and then turned his gaze to Sue and Reed. "Yeah, so, any one got any ideas why she suddenly hates my guts?"

Sue shook her head, "You don't think before you talk, Johnny. Everyone's frustrated with you for that."

"Yeah, that's fine." The blond frowned at his sister, nodding at the elevator doors, "But now she _hates_ me. Why?"

"She doesn't hate you, Johnny." Reed sighed, "Just give her some time. She'll come around."

* * *

"You didn't have to come with me, sweetie." Ben said as he and Noah climbed the stairs of the Baxter building.

Noah chuckled, "Oh, believe me, I'd rather be here than in that elevator." She shook her head, mail in her hand and eyes on the steps beneath her feet. She had been counting the steps as she climbed, but lost count a while ago – it didn't matter though, she was sure there must have been a million stairs between them and their floor. 

"Bite off more Johnny Storm then you could chew?" The stony man asked with a breathless chuckle.

"More like force fed," She scoffed.

They had a good laugh at that, taking the stairs one at a time. It was a slow process, but they were in good company, so the time was passed comfortably. Another three floors and Ben paused to point out the mail she carried. "Anything come from that committee yet?"

She sighed, frowning as she lifted the letters in her hand, "No. Not yet, but it's still a little early to really even be looking for a letter yet. I'm just anxious and that makes me a bit impatient."

Ben nodded, "You'll get in. They'd be crazy to refuse you."

"Thanks, Ben." She smiled, and there was an extra bounce in her step as she hurried up the next three steps. The man's words of encouragement had been sorely needed. Noah was very glad she had decided to use the stairs with Ben instead of the elevator with the others. 

It took them another five minutes to get all the way up the stairs, Noah hanging back and moving slower then she would have in order to stick with Ben. His steps were slow and heavy due to the weight of his stony body. As they climbed the last steps, walking into her and Reed's home, they saw both the scientist and Victor Von Doom standing near the elevator. The lights flickered strangely overhead and Victor's voice was angry and booming and directed at a silent Reed.

"Is there a problem?" Ben asked, Noah watchful as she put his coat and hat away.

Victor stared at Ben and sighed. He didn't look the least bit alarmed by the man's appearance – he simply looked tired and fed up with the whole thing. His voice dropped as he spoke, "No. No problem, Ben." The elevator dinged and Victor turned back to Reed, practically growling at the shorter man. "Just pay your damn electric bill and get to work on finding a cure." The rich man turned and left.

Noah saw her uncle's shoulders lift and drop with a sigh and scoffed softly as she ran a hand through her dark curls, "Always such a cheerful fellow, isn't he."

"Never mind him," Reed said and turned away from the elevator and into his lab at the center of the room, "Come on. Let's get started with some tests. Ben, could you give me a hand over here?" As Reed and Ben went over to retrieve some equipment, the male Richards called out to his niece, "And Noah, could you go find Johnny and bring him out here? I'd like to start with him."

"What?" Noah frowned, crossing her arms over her chest, "Why do I have to go get him?"

"Because Ben's helping me and Sue is in her room." The man gave her a meaningful look, one with a meaning Noah couldn't easily overlook.

"I don't want to see him right now."

"Noah…"

"No."

"Noah, please," Reed sighed heavily, "We're all going to be stuck here together for a while. The least you can do is _try_ to get along with him."

"But-!"

"Please?"

She sighed angrily, turning away from Ben and her uncle. She took angry steps into the hallway, searching out the room Johnny had picked out to be his own.

"You know, now she won't be speaking to you either for a while, right?" Ben chuckled as he helped Reed set up a large protective container in the middle of the lab.

"I'm aware, yes." Reed chuckled as well, glancing over to where Noah had disappeared down the hallway, "But they need to learn to cope with each other. And if they aren't going to work it out on their own then I'm just going to have to force it myself."

"Ok, dad." Ben laughed again, shaking his stony head at the other man. Reed cracked a grin.

A ways down the hall, Noah was grumbling irritably. There were only two spare rooms in the place once you eliminated her own room, Reed's, and the one Ben always used when he was over. She figured Sue would be in the one that she had used the few times she'd stayed the night with them while she and Reed had been dating… though she had almost always just ended up sharing Reed's room back then anyway. So that just left one open room and she headed right for it. When she got there, the door was hanging partially open and she stopped to knock against the frame – three swift raps with her knuckles against the wood.

The door was pulled open for her and Johnny stared down at her as though her presence surprised him. A smirk quickly replaced the look and the blond leaned back heavily in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest. "Well, well, fancy seeing you here."

"I live here, you dolt." She scowled at him. She gestured for him to follow her down the hall and back to the lab, "Come on. Reed wants to get some testing done before dinner and he wants to start with you."

Johnny squinted at her, giving his head a shake and grinning that grin of his at her. "Well, that's the strangest apology I've ever heard."

She frowned at him, "That's because it isn't one."

"I think I deserve one."

"For what?" She exclaimed.

"For – what was the word you used back on the station?" He took a moment, acting as though thinking it through. "Oh, right! How about for your less then amicable attitude towards me?" he smirked rather smugly.

"You don't merit an apology."

"I think I do."

"Why?"

He clapped his hands together, pressing the palms together and pointed at her with his melded finger tips. "Because you're being a bit of a bitch." He pursed his lips and nodded to himself, agreeing with his own statement.

"You deserve it!"

"Really?" He looked surprised – it was an irritated surprised though. "What did I do this time?"

"You were an ass to Ben! And on live television at that!"

"Then why are you angry?" He shouted back at her, "If I was an ass to Ben then he should be the one that's mad about it, not you!"

"Because he's got enough to worry about without having to deal with you too! Maybe if your head wasn't so far up your own ass all the time you'd be able to see that!" She shoved at his chest sharply with the heel of her hand, "But you're too busy pleasing the crowd and showing off for the cameras to notice anyone else! Some of us aren't as happy having these powers as you are! Some of us aren't as lucky as to be able to shut it on and off like you can! Perhaps you didn't notice back on the bridge, but people avoid Ben like the plague! They stare and point and whisper and cower before him like he's some horrible beast instead of a man! Debbie left him, Johnny! She's gone! Don't you understand how badly that hurt him?"

Johnny glared at her the entire time she spoke, teeth grinding together and jaw tense. The temperature in the hall fluctuated back and forth from hot to cold between them and both of their anger – it rolled off of both of them in rushing, pulsing waves.

She shook her head, rubbing her fingers against her temple and forehead. "You know what? I don't have time for this… Nothing I say to you is going to make a cent of difference anyway." She sighed and turned her back on the blond, "Just come on. Reed needs you in the lab."

She headed down the hall with him a few steps behind her. They went in silence, neither having anything else to say to the other, or at least not willing to speak. Walking into the lab, the looks on everyone else's faces said they had heard at least part of the argument between her and Johnny, but no one said anything. They all just dove straight into work.

Johnny was placed inside the protective chamber and Reed, Sue and Noah all sat together on the second level above the chamber to watch Johnny's vitals and perhaps figure out the inner workings of his powers. They got all the monitors and sensors set up and then instructed the blond inside the chamber to 'flame on', as he had taken to calling it now.

Noah watched flames licking out through the slates in the chamber as her uncle looked over a monitor beside her.

Reed hummed thoughtfully, "He's heating up from his core."

"And his vitals are completely normal…" Sue added.

"Whoa, whoa," Noah pointed to the growing temperature inside the chamber indicated on the monitor. "Look at this! He's over 2000 Kelvin already!"

"It's hotter than I anticipated…" Reed said thoughtfully, speaking into a comm. devise to Johnny next, "Ok, Johnny, back it down."

"I can go hotter!" Came the blond's reply.

"Johnny just back it down!" Sue scowled at her brother's voice.

The blond didn't listen, heating up even more so within the titanium chamber. Flames shot of the side, lighting up the room in a dangerous glow that stung at the eyes of everyone else in the room. Reed groaned beside his niece and Sue shielded her face with her hands as did Noah.

"Johnny! Back it down right now!" Noah shouted, seeing the temperature go soaring past 3000 Kelvin in the blink of an eye.

"Johnny!"

Reed reached over and slammed his fist into the emergency extinguish button on the panel. A yelp in alarm called out from the chamber as Johnny's flame immediately went out. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief – Johnny, on the other hand, was laughing like a maniac in what was left of the chamber.

"Buzz-kill!" The blond laughed, calling out to the three from one of the many gaping holes in the side of the smoldering chamber. He was covered head to toe in cold white foam and presumably naked beneath that fluffy covering. "You guys are crappin' my style!"

"Johnny," You were at 4000 Kelvin." Sue stressed to the grinning blond, "Any hotter, and you're approaching supernova."

"Sweet!" 

"No, not sweet." Sue shook her head.

"That's the temperature of the sun." Reed added.

"Not only could you kill yourself, you idiot," Noah explained to the man, "but you could set fire to Earth's atmosphere and destroy all human life as we know it."

Johnny stared at her a moment, the information sinking in. He looked ridiculous covered in all that foam, mouth hanging open and trembling from the cold. "Got it. Supernova-bad." He gave the group a double thumbs up of understanding.

Reed sighed. "So much for using the same chamber with you," he said to Noah. Nodding to the chamber and heading down towards it, "Come on. Let's try to get this mess cleaned up."

Johnny hurried off to clean up while the rest of them cleaned up after his little stunt. Ultimately, Reed and Sue moved on to run some tests on Ben and left Noah and a now recovered Johnny to clean up. The two worked in silence, avoiding communication or looking at each other if they could help it. They were still cleaning by the time Ben's tests were over and Reed moved on to Sue and it was the same when they ran tests on Reed as well. It took a grand total of three hours to clean up Johnny's near supernova disaster, but they managed to completely the task with plenty of time for Reed to squeeze in one last testing session. 

"Well, the titanium chamber is out of commission, so we're just going to have to do this without it." Reed explained more so to himself then to Noah. He looked to her, "Think you can refrain from going too over the top with the ice?"

Noah chuckled. The words had been a slight jab at Johnny and had amused her. The blond man scowled from across the room at them. "Yeah, I think I can manage."

Reed nodded and proceeded to set up a few monitors to watch her vitals just the same as he had done in Johnny's case. Sue sat near him, watching as well and Johnny leaned against a nearby wall with a thoughtful look on his face, eyes fixed on Noah. With a nod from her uncle to begin, Noah took a deep, calming breath and let her mind go, focusing on feeling more so than thought and began to feel the comforting, numb tingling in her fingers. It extended slowly up her arm and across her chest to the other arm and down to her fingers again. It was a slow spread, much slower then Johnny's immediate inferno, but it worked very much the same as his had.

"Whoa!" Johnny exclaimed from the wall, pushing up to stand and came up over to Reed and Sue for a better look at what he was seeing.

Noah lifted her hand to inspect it and was amazed to see the limb shine clear and solid, like cold crystal. She wiggled her fingers and flexed her hand and arm, finding everything worked like normal - the only difference was that instead of flesh and bone and blood, everything was made entirely of ice. Her hair even moved freely against her crystal face, curls clinking softly against her cheek. She was like a living, breathing ice sculpture.

"It's just like Johnny," Reed said as he clicked a monitor, reviewing temperature and vital states. "She's cooling from the core with no harm to her vitals whatsoever. Amazing…"

"This _is_ really cool." She chuckled, "Pardon the pun." She trailed her cold fingers through the air in front of her, watching freezing mist radiate off the limb.

"Ok, now, I want to try something…" Reed said distractedly, gesturing Johnny over. "Noah, lifted up your hand, and Johnny, can you focus your flame just in your hand?"

"Sure."

They did as they were told and Reed instructed them to press their palms together as they were, flame against ice. They hesitated, studying each other carefully. Neither was ready to put their earlier and most recent argument behind them just yet, but they relented for just this one moment and placed their hands together – Johnny's dwarfed Noah's hand by a full knuckle's length. The flames of Johnny's hand licked at Noah's frozen palm, but it didn't melt the ice of her hand. Instead, the flames seemed to dance and skirt around the limb, and the ice of Noah's did the same – neither melting nor putting out the other.

"Interesting." Reed observed, his brows arched high on his forehead. "I thought one would most likely extinguish the other, but it seems I was wrong. It's like they negate the effects of each other, but at the same time it isn't that either. They just…coexist; neither aiding nor threatening the existence of the other. A kind of commensalism..."

Johnny dropped his hand soon after that, stepping back and putting out the flame that was his hand. Noah noticed Sue rubbing at her arms from the chill she was causing and powered down as well with an apologetic smile directed at the blonde woman.

Reed, once again, was lost in his figures and calculations and ideas, muttering off this and that to himself as he shuffled through papers and clicked away at the monitors. Noah chuckled at the display, focusing on her uncle to ignore Johnny's presence so near her – it had been so strange, having his flaming hand pressed to her icy one. It had been like smooth, lukewarm water pooling against her hand, or maybe even warm, coiling silk against her cold palm; soothing and strange. She wondered vaguely if he had experienced the oddity same as she had or if she was just losing it – maybe her abnormally cool internal temperatures were causing her brain to malfunction.

* * *

Three days later found Reed making a number of important discoveries concerning their powers. One such discovery concerned the synthetic suits they had all been wearing on the station at the time the cloud had hit. The ice around Johnny and Noah had thawed a bit by then as well, and though they were far from friends, they were at least talking again. Sort of.

"Our uniforms were exposed to the storm, like us, so they can transform like us…" Reed explained as Johnny came bounding down the stairs into the living room where Ben was sitting with his feet propped up on the coffee table. Sue was studying Ben's old suit in her hands and Noah was adjusting the collar of her own suit, zipping up the neck line to the base of her throat – she wasn't so keen on showing off the bit of cleavage she had like Sue was. But, then again, Sue was a lot more endowed than she was and actually had something worth showing off. "…becoming invisible, changing size on demand, withstanding freezing temperatures, or remaining impervious to flame."

"You guys look like an 80's rock band." Ben chuckled at the sight of them all in the blue spandex uniforms. He remained the only one out of the five without a suit on.

"You know, Ben, this material stretches." Sue told him, "I'm sure I can figure out a way to make it fit." But Ben waved the idea aside.

Noah wasn't listening though – she was too busy scowling at Johnny. The blond was strutting around with his hands on his hips, turning this way and that, showing off in the suit. He seemed really very pleased with the way it gave definition to his upper as well as lower body, as he explained to her over and over again.

"Johnny, I don't care." She finally snapped at him.

"Aw, don't get angry." The blond chuckled, "I know it must be hard to stand so close to perfection, but believe me, you look good too."

"You're an idiot." She shook her head at him, unable to suppress a small smirk though despite herself as the blond continued to strut and praise himself.

"But here, look, this makes it even better…!" He exclaimed, reaching out to her and snagging the zipper at her throat. He pulled it down before she could slap his hand away or even protest, sliding the neck line open to match Sue's. "There, before it was nice, but now it's hot!"

Noah couldn't help the furiously red blush that exploded across her face and it frustrated her as she had figured such a thing would be impossible with a core temperature as low as her's. The blond laughed at the flush, bringing everyone's attention to Noah's flaming face.

"Johnny," Reed warned the blond with a scowl, "keep your hands to yourself."

"Yes, sir." Johnny mock saluted Reed, attention turned back to himself. He ran his hands up and down his own torso while Noah zipped the neck line of her suit back up once again. He chuckled to himself gleefully, "I love these costumes!"

Noah rolled her eyes. The blush had finally died down.

"They're missing something, though." The blond continued, "Needs, like, spice-"

"They're not costumes." Reed interrupted Johnny, frowning at the younger man.

"You can't use your powers in public, Johnny." Sue added sternly.

Johnny scoffed at their parental tone, "You guys are worse than NASA."

"You can't be sore with NASA, Johnny." Noah shook her head.

"And why can't I?" He countered, "They were, like, the anti-fun police. They were nazi's of fun!"

"You're only saying that because you washed out."

"No, no, no. I'm saying it because it's the truth."

Once again, Noah rolled her eyes at the blond, watching him go into a series of 'karate' kicks and chops. He looked like a monkey in a full body bathing suit in her opinion, and yet somehow, at the same time, extremely attractive. She shook her head of the thought, reminding herself that her brain was malfunctioning. Yes… her brain must be malfunctioning.

* * *

Please Review and let me know what you think! Pardon any spelling/grammatical errors you might find.


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she was eight. What happens if she came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC

**THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE REVIEWED! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!**

* * *

_The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.__- Mark Caine_

A small little meeting of sorts was called by Reed one morning about two weeks after the discovery that their suits all transformed and performed the same as their bodies did. Ben was at the head of the table squeezing oranges into a glass dish for his morning orange juice while Reed and Sue sat at the table with him, enjoying breakfast. Johnny came bounding into the room, Noah coming in just after him. She had a pair of ice skates tied together and tossed over one shoulder.

"All right, I'm here. Let's make this quick. I got a lot of places to go today." Johnny announced as he crossed the room and stole Ben's juice right out of his hands. He stopped; giving a terribly fake laugh that brought a smirk to Noah's face. "Oh, wait. I don't go anywhere!"

"Johnny, it's imperative that we stay inside for the foreseeable future." Reed explained, "We shouldn't ever leave the building unless it is absolutely, 100 necessary."

"I know, I know, Reed, but when you said that last time, my brain hurt a week." Johnny complained from the kitchen counter.

"Johnny, it's too dangerous for you to be in public." Sue told him in that stern manner she had become accustomed to using with her little brother.

"You've been saying that for years." Johnny countered and Noah actually chuckled as she popped a piece of fruit from the bowl on the table into her mouth.

"What worries me is that our powers are evolving..." Reed continued.

"I know. I know!" Johnny stressed, back to the group and shaking his head. He tossed a napkin to the counter top as he turned to face them again. "I'm so close to flying, guys, I can _taste_ it."

"Pff! You can't fly." Noah scoffed at him.

"Yet." Johnny added to her words, leering at her.

"Johnny, can you put that napkin out?" Sue asked her brother, brows arched and hand outstretched to gesture at the napkin he had set aflame without realizing, burning away on the counter top.

Johnny turned to look and groaned in surprised, "Oh, Jesus!" He tried patting it out with his hands, sending sparks across the counter.

Noah sighed at the display, "You idiot…" She stretched out her hand in the direction of the flaming napkin. A freezing wave of ice wrapped itself around the napkin and froze the flame in mid flicker. It clunked heavily against the counter and Johnny slid it over to drop into the sink.

The blond grinned, giving her a thumbs up. "Good team work." She rolled her eyes and looked to Ben as the stony man spoke up.

"What's going on?" Ben asked, looking to Reed, "How you gonna cure us?"

"I'm going to build a machine to re-create the storm." Reed explained, holding up a chart that showed them all what said machine would look like and how it would operate. "The cosmic rays will travel from his generator to this chamber."

"What, no pop-ups?" Johnny asked sarcastically, pouting for effect.

Everyone ignored him.

"If I can reverse the wave signal-," Reed carried on as though not interrupted.

"It'll return us back to normal." Ben finished for him. The stony man liked his idea, it seemed, and clamped down on the fork he had been holding up to eat the piece of watermelon he's caught from the bowl. There was a metallic crunch in his mouth and Noah winced.

"Right, but what are the risks?" Sue asked as she flipped through Reeds plans for his machine.

"Even a small miscalculation could increase our symptoms exponentially." Reed paused before finishing, "…Or perhaps even kill us."

Everyone looked directly at him, startled by his words.

"Now, dying-" Johnny's brows were arched high on his forehead as he looked from Noah to Reed and back again, "that's bad, right?" When Reed only sighed the blond continued loudly, "I say we just let sleeping dogs lie, guys." He stepped forward, spun a chair at the table around and sat down on it backwards.

"So how long until this contraption's up and runnin'?" Ben demanded as if Johnny hadn't said a word.

"I don't know. It's hard to say…"

"How long, Reed?"

"I don't know-"

"You don't know?" Ben stood from the table. He looked outraged.

"You don't want this to get worse." Reed tried to explain.

"Worse than _that_?" Johnny asked with a laugh.

Noah threw the blond a reproachful look, "Johnny, remember what I told you about propriety a while back?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, you're still lacking, genius." She snapped at him, glaring once more.

Johnny paused, looking over Noah good and long for the first time that morning. She was wearing clothes geared towards cooler temperatures, though he supposed that could just be because she was the ice queen now, but somehow he didn't think that was the case. The skates tossed over her shoulder kind of clued him in on that one.

"No way!" The blond pointed at her incredulously and looked around the table at the elders. "She gets to go out? You guys are letting her leave this place and go skating?"

Reed shifted uncomfortably, looking to Sue and then back to Johnny. "It's a necessity."

"Oh, no fair!" Johnny sprang to his feet, "Going out is a necessity for me too! You can't play favorites here, Reed."

"No, Johnny, he's not playing favorites." Sue explained with a sigh, "Noah has to stay in top form. Plus, the rink is much cooler and we can't keep it that cold here in the building so…"

"Well, I'm going too then." Johnny announced.

"Oh, right, and what? Melt the ice?" Noah scoffed, "I don't think so, hot-head."

"I'm not going to melt the ice." Johnny rolled his eyes, "I'll have skates on. My feet won't touch the ice. And if I fall, which I won't, I'll be wearing the suit under my clothes. There's no way."

Reed and Sue shared a long look before the dark-haired man relented and gave a nod. Johnny clapped in triumph, a beyond pleased grin on his handsome face. Noah stared at her uncle unbelievingly.

"Just remember, Johnny," Sue warned the blond, "you're going to the skating rink. Nowhere else, got it? To the rink and then straight back here; no side trips."

"Fine, fine," the blond waved her off, jogging back up the stairs to change for the trip ahead of him, "There's bound to be a few hot chicks at the rink, right?"

Noah groaned, "Do you realize what you've just done?" She looked directly at her uncle, obviously blaming him and him alone for her misfortune. "Why can't you just make him stay here?"

"He's getting restless, Noah; you know how he gets when he's cooped up. The fact that he's lasted this long without really lashing out is a miracle. Just take him along with you and let him burn some of that extra energy he's got built up in him – he isn't used to just hanging around inside a house for so long. Besides," he shrugged, "letting you go out and not him is a little on the unfair side."

Noah argued with her uncle a good few more minutes, but in vain. For as soon as Johnny was back down the stairs, changed and ready to go, she found herself grabbed by the wrist and hauled out and into the elevator in Johnny's rush to leave.

* * *

The rink was busy, but not outrageously so. There was plenty of room on the ice and the majority of the people there were parents with their kids – it looked like there might have been a birthday party or two going on, there were so many kids running around and wobbling on the ice. Noah grinned at the look Johnny gave his surroundings.

"What's with all the kids?"

"Ice rinks are pretty popular with kids. They like to have their birthday parties at them and skate with friends." She explained, sliding quarters into one of the vacant lockers along the far wall of the rink – she toed off her shoes and told Johnny to do the same, putting them and all the belongings they didn't want to be taking out on the ice with them in the locker and she locked it up tight.

"What about women?" Johnny asked petulantly as they both sat down to tug their skates on – Noah with her own personal pair and Johnny with a pair he had rented from the rink. "Don't any women come out here?"

"There are women here."

"No, I mean unattached women. Young women." She gestured around with his hands, "Hot women."

"It's an ice rink, not a strip club." She scowled.

"Well, maybe we should have gone to one of those."

She rolled her eyes, glancing down at Johnny's skates. She groaned, shaking her head and pointed the loosely tied laces out to the blond, "Johnny, you have to tie the skates up tight. Loose laces could end in losing a skate on the ice or injuring yourself… stupid."

Johnny retied his skates up with a sigh. Noah watched his fingers work, making sure he did it right this time. Satisfied, Noah stood up from the bench in front of the locker they had used and motioned for Johnny to follow her.

"Do you know how to skate?" She asked over her shoulder, "If not then we should probably start at the other end of the rink. There are less people there and it would be better for-"

"I know how to skate." Johnny scoffed at her, "Any moron can skate."

She scowled at him, "Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Oh, well, then by all means," She stepped aside and gestured for the man to enter the rink before her. She waited for him to either take back his words or make good on them – she already knew what the outcome would be.

Johnny puffed out his chest, setting his jaw tightly and stepped out onto the ice. He pushed off, gliding across straight ahead with a growing smirk on his lips. He cackled as Noah came gliding up alongside him. "Ha ha! See? What did I tell you? This is easy."

"You're just gliding," She scoffed at him. "See? You're already slowing down… gliding isn't skating."

And she was right. Johnny's legs began to wobble in his skates as she spoke, slowing down on the ice. He lifted a foot, as if to prove her wrong and propel himself forward once more, but he wobbled again and stumbled. His arms came out, waving wildly in hopes of preventing his inevitable fall and steady himself on his feet. It was futile, though, and the blond ultimately slipped back and fell to his butt on the ice with a loud and heavy thud.

Noah chuckled at his misfortune, circling around the fallen blond with her arms tucked behind her back. She moved effortlessly on the ice, watching him pull himself to his hands and knees, struggling to get back on his feet. The man slipped again, falling back down with a yelp and a groan – he winced deeply, hissing at the bruising pain in his rear and hips.

He tried several more times to get up, watching Noah glide and turn and move freely around and in front of him with barely contained envy. She made it look so easy.

"Why is this so hard?" He finally shouted at her as she came back around to him.

"Because this sort of thing takes time and patience," She smiled at him in amusement, "two things you don't even pretend to have for anything, let alone ice skating."

"How'd you get so good at it?"

"I've been doing it since I was twelve, Johnny." She sighed, bracing herself on her skates and extending a hand to the fallen blond. She hefted him up with a huff, wobbling a little herself with his added weight and unbalance pressing up against her. She steadied the both of them, hands on Johnny's shoulders and side. She gave him a breathless chuckle, "Don't worry, I'll help you, ok? Now, just keep your ankles straight, strong, but let your legs stay a little loose – like if you were roller skating, yeah?"

He did as he was told, wobbling a little, but then regaining control of himself quickly. He grinned, pleased with this small improvement of staying on his feet.

Noah reached out and took a hold of Johnny's hand in her's, pulling on it carefully. "Now just take it one leg at a time. Watch me and do what I do…"

He did, brow furrowed in concentration as he tried to mirror her movements. He wasn't very good at it, body lurching back and forth at times and nearly taking them both down several times in a row. His hand clutched at her's tightly, almost painfully at times, but he _was_ trying and that was the important part in Noah's opinion. They went around the outside of the rink four times together, hand in hand, and Johnny slowly started to improve – he still stumbled and went down hard a couple of times, but Noah stuck close by and always helped him back onto his feet with a chuckle.

"I'm not going to be able to move in the morning…" Johnny groaned as Noah helped him up once again.

"I'm sure your ego is more bruised then your bum." Noah chuckled at the blond, seeing three children skating up to them as she steadied Johnny on his feet. She looked to the children, smiling at them.

The small group consisted of two young boys and a girl, none of them looking much older than nine years old. The girl and one of the boys actually looked like twins. The girl scowled at her lookalike brother and then turned to Noah and a wobbling Johnny – the blond couldn't stand still on the ice and was slowly sliding backwards from the group now around him.

"My brother doesn't believe me, but weren't you and him on the t.v. the other day?" The girl asked Noah. Her brother was standing just behind her, looking over Noah and Johnny skeptically.

"Well…" Noah looked over to Johnny with a crease in her brow. The blond, however, was a little too busy trying desperately to stay on his feet to be paying much attention to what the little girl had asked of them. She sighed and nodded to the girl, "Yes."

"See! I told you!" The girl announced loudly to her friend and brother, pointing directly at Noah with a gloved finger, "She's Noah Richards and he's Johnny Storm!" Her finger next pointed out Johnny just as the blond's feet slid out from under him and he went crashing to the ice once again with a deep rooted groan and wince. The girl winced as well, looking to Noah, "…he's not very good at skating, is he?"

Noah chuckled, sliding over to Johnny as the blond man sat up with a glare at the children that followed her over to him. She dropped a hand to him to help him up again, speaking over her shoulder at the kids, "No, he's not. But this is his first time on the ice."

"No it isn't." Johnny scowled at Noah hotly, "I did some skating that time Reed and Sue brought us here, remember?"

"Johnny," Noah sighed, shaking her head with a smirk at the blond, "that was almost seven years ago. And you spent more time on the benches talking to girls than you did on the ice."

"You always have to focus on the tiny details, don't you?"

"One of us has too." She smirked as he wobbled back on his feet beside her once more. He latched onto her hand again and wouldn't let go, keeping his balance with her as his anchor. She let him hold on, but not without giving him a reproachful look.

The boy standing with the girl and her brother giggled at them, pointing out Noah's and Johnny's joined hands. "Oooh, look! They're holding hands again!"

"Are you going to marry him?" The girl asked, looking from Noah to Johnny and back again with a sheepish smile on her face.

Noah felt a little flushed and taken aback by the question. She held up her free hand to the children, shaking her head with a breathless chuckle. "Oh, no, no, no. Johnny and I are only friends."

"Oh, so we _are_ friends now?" Johnny asked her with a smirk.

She scowled at him, "Careful, hothead, it can easily be revised." Johnny just smiled cheekily at her, but the look was swiftly replaced with one of alarm as his body lurched back and he nearly fell all over again – Noah laughed at him, wrist locking up and trying to hold him up by the hand she still held in her own.

The young girl looked between them, her nose curling and eyes squinting. "Oh…" She gave the wobbling Johnny a weird look, regarding him slowly, "He really isn't a very good skating partner."

"Yeah? Well, who asked you, Raggedy-Anne?" Johnny snapped at the girl, scowling at her irritably. Noah shushed him, yanking at his hand sharply and giving him a look. "What? We're all aware that I royally suck at this skating thing, she doesn't need to keep pointing it out!"

"She's nine, Johnny." Noah frowned at him, muttering under her breath so the girl hopefully wouldn't hear, "You're freaking over the observation of a little girl."

"My older brother, Chris, is much better than him…" The girl continued like nothing had happened and Johnny hadn't said a thing. Her eyes lit up and she turned to point across the rink, "That's him over there, in the blue sweater. You should skate with him instead."

Noah chuckled, following the girls finger to the skater across the rink. He looked around her age and quite capable on his skates. She meant to shake her head and politely turn the girl's suggestion down, but Johnny jumped in with a scowl and a tug at her hand.

"Nobody cares about your brother or what he can do," the blond snapped at the girl and her friends, earning himself an angry glare from the girl. "She's skating with me, now get lost." He ushered the kids away with a violent thrust of his hand out towards the opposite end of the rink.

The kids did leave this time, the little girl complaining about Johnny and glaring at the blond the entire way across the rink. Noah gave Johnny a nasty look as the blond tugged her with him as he wobbled away as well.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She exclaimed at him.

"What?" The blond looked incredulous, as if he had done nothing wrong.

"You can't talk to kids like that, Johnny."

"No? Well, too late. I just did."

"You're impossible, you know that?" She rolled her eyes, looking at him in disgust.

"Hey! I was in the right back there," the blond argued. He glared at his companion, "Why the hell did you even bring me here anyway? There's nothing but kids and a bunch of damn ice here! Hard, cold ice!"

"It's a skating rink, Johnny!" Noah threw up her free hand, movements becoming jerky and angry on the ice, "Of course there's ice! And it's common knowledge that kids like to come to these places! Besides," she continued with a finger pointed accusingly at the blond, "you're the one that _had_ to come along with me!"

"I thought it would be fun!"

"It is fun!"

"Bullshit!"

"Damn it, Johnny!" She finally just wrenched her hand out of the blond's and turned on him, their shouting loud and reaching the ears of some of the skaters around them. "Why don't you just go home then?"

"May be I will!"

"Good!"

"Damn straight it's good!"

"So leave!"

"I am!"

Noah crossed her arms over her chest, jaw tense as she arched a brow and waited for the blond to skate off and leave the rink completely. He just stood still at first, looking down at the ice uncertainly. "Well?"

Johnny just grumbled.

"What was that?" Noah taunted, "I don't speak asshole."

Johnny glared at her, jaw just as tense and cast his eyes away embarrassedly. "I said… I don't think I can make it to the other side."

"Not without falling and looking like a dumbass?" Noah finished for him, tension in her jaw loosening just a little bit as the blond nodded. She sighed heavily, shaking her head and held out a hand to Johnny, "…I'll help you, so long as you stop being such an asshole."

"Of course, as soon as you stop being such a bitch." Johnny smirked and took her hand, ignoring the look she threw at him. "Admit it. You were being a bitch – leaving me to fall all over the place to go skate with that brat's brother…Brian…. John… whatever!."

"She said his name was Chris, Johnny," Noah rolled her eyes, "and I wasn't going to skate with him, idiot. I don't even know him."

"…oh."

"Feel like a dumbass now?"

The blond scoffed at her, watching her skates on the ice and mirroring the movements as best as he could, "Never."

"Maybe that's your problem," Noah informed him, "You're so convinced you're never wrong about anything."

"I don't have a problem and you're right, I am never wrong."

"Johnny, you told some kids to get lost and called them names…" She arched a brow at him, "You've got problems, believe me."

"God, you're so argumentative." Johnny scowled at her, but Noah recognized the sharp edge of playfulness in his eyes and voice. That was interesting… the blond was being playful, like she really was a good friend of his – something she'd never, ever even entertained the idea of.

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Please Review and let me know what you think! Pardon any spelling/grammatical errors you might find.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she was eight. What happens if she came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC

**Thanks so much for all the reviews and support! It keeps me going!**

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_When good people have a __falling out__, only one of them may be at fault at first; but if the strife continues long, usually both become guilty.__ – Thomas Fuller_

"Have a good time?"

Noah looked up from where she was tucking her ice skates back on the shelf in her closet to find her uncle leaning in the doorway and smiling at her. He looked tired, but pleased with himself and Noah made a face inwardly because she knew just why he was practically gloating.

"Yes, I had a pretty good time."

"With Johnny?"

Noah did make a face at him this time and he chuckled at it. She shook her head, moving over to her desk and sifting through the titles of the books she owned with her eyes, speaking to Reed over her shoulder. "…Well, sort of."

"Just sort of?"

"He wasn't a complete monster, I'll give him that." She picked a book from the shelf, taking it with her to her bed and plopping down on the mattress with the intention of reading the rest of the evening away. She gave her uncle another look, "But we're far from the 'best friends forever' that you seem so hell bent on making us be."

Reed chuckled, "I never said anything like that. I just asked if you could try and get along with him." He came and sat at the edge of her bed, shrugging his shoulders, "I know you two didn't exactly see eye to eye when you were younger-"

"Ha! Understatement of the year." She rolled her eyes at him with a smirk.

"-but a couple of years can do a lot to change a person." Reed continued like she hadn't interrupted him. He shrugged again, "You might have more in common now then you did before. It might just take a little extra effort now and then to find."

"He hasn't changed that much," she frowned as she opened to a page in her book, "He's the same as he was when I first met him; he just spontaneously combusts now."

"He isn't that bad, you know…"

"No, he really isn't." Noah sighed, letting the book droop to her lap and head fall back against the headboard of her bed, "In fact, he's a lot of fun when he isn't being an egotistical asshole." Reed made a face at her cursing, but Noah ignored it. "And the worse thing about it is that I don't even really hate him, never have. Not even after all the stupid, rude, pig-headed things he's done and said."

"Mmm…" Reed hummed thoughtfully, grinning once more. "Then maybe there's hope yet for friendship."

"Maybe, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you." She paused and then laughed, shaking her head, "Either way, you should have seen him on the ice rink. He skates like a chicken with its head cut off."

Reed shared a laugh with her from the mental picture her words painted for him. "That bad?"

"Oh, he was terrible!" She continued to chuckle, "I had to hold his hand 90 of the time just so he wouldn't keep falling down."

Reed arched a brow, "Holding hands? I wasn't aware that I sent the two of you off on a date…" He smirked at the indignant look that sparked across her face.

"Oh, that's just gross." She curled her nose at the very idea.

Reed chuckled and stood from his niece's bed, holding his palms up in surrender, "Sorry, sorry. My mistake…"

He grinned at his niece and Noah felt her eyes narrow at the way he looked at her. He left her room with that grin still plastered to his face, like he knew things she didn't and found them amusing, and a faint chuckle rattling in his throat. She felt her lungs tighten at the implication of the man's behavior and words.

The next week went by rather uneventfully, aside from the multitude of scientists Reed had brought in to help with the construction of his machine. That, and the fact that Johnny had grown restless once more – ice skating with Noah being his only option concerning getting out of the Baxter during that week not being enough to sustain his interest. The blond had started lashing out and making trouble around the flat, mainly with Ben, but everyone got their fair share of torture from Johnny Storm.

"I say we go out and do something."

"Yeah? Well, I say stop whining and hurry up with the popcorn." Noah glanced over her shoulder and towards the kitchen where Johnny had disappeared to fetch them something to snack on.

"I'm not whining," Johnny insisted as he came back out to the living room. He tossed a bottled water to Noah as he slid onto the sofa beside her; the aluminum covering of a self pop tray of popcorn was expanding in his hand as he scowled at the girl, his hand heating and popping the kernels inside. "I'm just suggesting doing something awesome, other than ice skating, sometime in the extremely close future."

"Something awesome?" She capped her bottled water, flicking the channels on the television with the remote. "Like what?"

It was rather late in the evening, but no one was really asleep at the Baxter tonight – Reed was working away in the lab with some coworkers, Sue was reading in her room, and Ben was watching Reed work in the lab and wondering around the flat anxiously. Having nothing better to do, she'd agreed to find something interesting on television and watch it with Johnny, who had then suggested popcorn should be added in on this little equation of theirs. But there was nothing all that great on tonight…

The blond shrugged as he tore the aluminum foil off the top of the try and chomped down on a handful of salty, buttered popcorn. "I don't know. Anything, so long as it gets me out of this place."

"Ice skating gets you out and about."

"Yeah, but my ass is black and blue!" He exclaimed and Noah laughed, "I need to get out and do something I don't royally suck at."

"Like selling your body on the streets for some camera time?" She smirked at him, popping a few pieces of popcorn into her own mouth.

He glared at her, chin tilted back and mouth pressed into a thin line. He threw a few pieces of popcorn at her, hitting her across the forehead.

"What?" She chuckled, "You know that's exactly what you do, Johnny."

"Do not."

"Do too." She smirked again at the faces he made at her, reaching for the popcorn her now held just out of her reach. She huffed, trying to look cross even as she smiled, "Come on, sharing is caring."

"Nuh-uh, get your own." He held it further out of her reach, chomping down greedily on the fluffy white pieces.

"I can't heat up a tray with my hand like you."

"Use the microwave."

"That's boring…"

"Then go make a Popsicle instead."

"Who eats a Popsicle at eleven thirty at night?"

"You, apparently."

"But I want popcorn."

"Well, guess you're just shit out of luck, Lady Ice.

He cracked a smile as a struggle broke out between them with Noah reaching and him holding her at bay. She was leaning over him now, the two of them messing around and halfheartedly fighting like a pair of young teenagers – the banter between them was calm and relaxed, tossed back and forth same as a couple would do while teasing each other and had anyone been around to see it they undoubtedly would have thought just that: that they were a couple.

The two had no idea about the kind image they gave off as they tussled and bickered over the popcorn and whether or not it should be shared. Eventually, Johnny relented and agreed to place the tray between them and share once more.

"'Lady Ice'?" Noah arched a brow at Johnny as the blond took control of the remote and continued their prior 'quest' to find something worth watching that night, "What's that supposed to be? Some kind of trippy code name?"

"Sure," Johnny grinned around a mouthful of popcorn, "Have you never read a comic book before? All superheroes have awesome names: Superman, The Green Lantern, Wolverine, Batman, Spiderman, The Flash… We've got the costumes, so I figured all we needed now were names."

"So you took the liberty of coming up with Lady Ice for me?" She gave him a funny look.

"Either that or Ice Bitch." He smirked. A sharp swat at his arm with the back of her chilled hand knocked he look off his face.

"And what about you? What are you calling yourself?" She countered, "The Flare of Doom?"

He made a face, "Very funny." He tilted his head, blue eyes sparking in awe of himself; "No, I'm going with The Human Torch."

She was silent for a moment, just staring at him. After a while she just gave a disbelieving chuckle, "Are you serious?"

"Ah, shut up, you just don't know greatness when you hear it." He waved her off, ignoring the way she shook her head and smirked. A few more clicks of the remote and Johnny's body seized up, slouching posture stiffening and straightening up beside Noah. He'd found an extreme sports channel showing dirt bikes and riders launching themselves into the air. "Hell yeah! Now _this_ is what I'm talkin' about!"

She rolled her eyes, frowning at the screen. She'd never had much liking for these sorts of things.

"Ah, look at that!" Johnny exclaimed, eyes bright with excitement as he watched some guy catapult himself off the handlebars of his bike and crash to the ground with a sickening thud.

Noah just gapped at it in horror, "You're excited about that? It's a miracle that man didn't just snap his neck in half!"

"I know. I _know_!" The blond just continued to watch, popcorn forgotten – oblivious to Noah's alarm and disgust. "Jesus, I need to get out there…"

"What?" She sounded incredulous, turning wide hazel eyes on the man beside her. "Are you crazy?"

But Johnny wasn't listening to her anymore; eyes glued to the television screen and mouth slightly agape. He was totally sucked in and all Noah could do was stare and shake her head.

"You know Sue and Reed aren't going to let you go out there." She pressed and finally got a reaction out of the blond.

He scoffed, "What they don't know won't hurt them."

"Don't be ridiculous," she frowned at him, "you'll be all over television the second you step onto that track. Everyone, including Reed and Sue, will know you're there."

"Excellent." Johnny just grinned.

"Good job," she mused with a growing smirk of her own, "you've successfully proven my point."

"Huh?"

"You'll do anything for a little camera time." She nodded her head towards the screen, "Besides, you'd probably just get yourself killed or something by going out there."

"Pssh! I happen to be amazing on a dirt bike."

"You're ridiculous."

"No, you just like to argue with me."

"I despise confrontations."

"Whatever, you _thrive _off confrontation." He smirked, "Plus, I think you just like to hear the sound of my voice."

She snorted mockingly at the conclusion the blond had come to.

"Admit it, you think I'm sexy and love to hear me talk."

She did laugh at that one, "Hardly! You're about as appealing as a root canal…"

"I think you have a crush on me."

"I think you're an idiot."

"A sexy idiot?" He grinned.

"No, just an idiot." She scowled at him, irritated with the way he was still grinning at her "I told you once already – you aren't nearly as attractive as you think you are."

"Denial," Johnny folded the aluminum covering of the popcorn tray inwards as they finished with it, putting it aside on the coffee table. "It's obvious, Noah. Especially after the way you just _had_ to hold my hand like you did the other day on ice rink."

"You really are retarded, aren't you?" She gave him a look of disgust, scowling still, "You were the one holding my hand and if I hadn't let you, you'd have spent the entire time on your ass."

"I bet if you saw me out there on that track you'd change your mind."

She gave a sarcastic chuckle, "M-mm, bet I wouldn't."

"Come out there with me tomorrow and see for yourself." Johnny suggested and watched as Noah shook her head at him.

"You aren't allowed, Johnny."

"Aw, come on," he scowled lightly at her. "All women love a rebel."

"Not this one."

Johnny regarded her oddly for a long while before he spoke again, "Really? What kind of guy do you go for then?"

"What?" She shook her head and frowned at the blond, looking both troubled and confused, "Why? Where did this even come from?"

"Just humor me." The blond studied her face intently, looking slightly amused as he awaited her answer.

Seeing that he was serious about wanting to know, Noah just sighed heavily and looked at the coffee table thoughtfully. "Well, a smart, well read man would be nice. A poet or an author…"

"Jesus, what's wrong with you?" Johnny shook his head, looking at her like he pitied her. "You're life is going to be so _boring_. I wouldn't be able to stand it."

"Then it's a good thing it's my life and not yours." Noah frowned at him, "And I suppose you'll settle down with no woman under the super model or actress status?"

He scoffed, "Oh please, I'm not that shallow." He smirked, "I'm just not gonna settle down at all. That way I'll have all the fun, all the fame, and none of the commitment." He tapped a finger against his temple, "Smart, huh?"

She curled her nose at him, "No. Sad and pathetic."

He frowned at her response, waving her off, "You're just too young to understand."

"Sure." She just looked back to the television, "I hope you wake up from all of these delusions of yours someday, Johnny Storm. I really do."

He just shrugged her comment off and returned his attention to the extreme bikers on the screen.

* * *

Johnny was watching the extreme sports channel again that next morning; or… afternoon really. He and Noah hadn't retired for sleep until around two in the morning anyway and even though she'd managed to get up and function properly at nine-thirty, Johnny hadn't gotten up until twelve. So, he was sitting on the sofa with a bowl of Easy Mac in his hand and a groggy look in his blue eyes. Reed was sitting in the arm chair, tweaking notes and scowling at his papers and Ben was sitting on the opposite end of the sofa as Johnny, staring at the screen with barely contained boredom.

"God, I've got to get out there…" Johnny finally spoke, around a mouthful of mac and cheese.

"No chance in hell, hothead." Ben gruffed out. He gave his stony head a slow shake and folded his hands against his stomach.

"The ice rink just isn't good enough for him," Noah explained as she came out to the living room as well, leaning her elbows against the back of the sofa behind Johnny's head. The blond glanced up at her, waving her comment off.

"No, it's good enough," he frowned, "I'm just tired of it. We've gone three times in the last five days – it gets old fast."

"And you'd rather go out to a dirt bike track, fling yourself off ramps and quite possibly break your neck?" She hummed, "Exciting, sure, but stupid."

"Your opinion is bias." Johnny pointed at her with his spoon, "So your opinion doesn't matter."

"It'll draw too much attention, Johnny." Reed added, gesturing at the television, "That event is being broadcasted on live television – everyone will know you're there, crowds will form and that's just more attention than you or the rest of us really need right now."

Ben scoffed, "That's why he wants to go. He wants the attention." He glared at the television screen, mumbling, "Worse than a bratty five year old…"

"No!" Johnny defended himself, "I'm just tired of being stuck here! And I want to do something fun by my books for a change."

Reed lowered his papers, giving the situation a thoughtful look. "Alright… then think of something else. Something that won't draw so much attention… like a movie." He gave an accomplished grin, "Why don't you and Noah go see a movie?"

Johnny's head whipped around to look at the girl, brows arched high on his forehead and that Johnny Storm grin on his lips. Noah scowled at him.

"What? No way, I'm not going out to a movie with him." She frowned at her grinning uncle, "I'm busy. I'm going to the rink again today, so he's just going to have to go on his own."

Ben heaved a laugh, "Like leaving Wonder Boy alone anywhere is a good idea…"

"Go on, Noah," Reed continued, "go to the movies. You might actually enjoy yourself."

She glared at him, well aware of what he was doing. It was humiliating, in her opinion, to have her uncle practically playing match maker with her and Johnny Storm. Whether it was just setting them up to be good friends or something more, she didn't care – the fact that he was doing it at all, forcing her into constant contact with the blond man irritated her to no end.

"It'll be good for you." Johnny added, jumping up from the sofa and dumping his dishes in the sink in the kitchen, "You're obsessed with the ice rink and skating – it's about time you did something else for a change. Think of this as divine intervention."

"Divine?"

"Of course," he smirked while tugged his jacket on and grabbed the newspaper, "I'm too much of a god for it to be just plan intervention." He flipped through the articles until he found the theater and movie times and then scanned the selection for something worth the time and money to go see.

She scoffed, but decided against commenting. That would only drive Johnny to talk some more about how divine and awe inspiring he thought he was. Instead, Noah looked at her uncle, "Why don't you come along? If I have to give up skating for the day, then you have to give up doing the brooding scientist thing for the day."

Reed shook his head, tapping his pencil against his papers, "Love to, but can't. This machine is too important; it demands my full attention at all times…"

"Then how about Sue, or Ben?" Noah asked, desperate to have someone else come along with her. She didn't want to be trapped in a dark theater, alone with Johnny Storm – especially after the previous night with his insistence that she was madly in love with him.

"Sue's already left for the day," Reed explained, "She wanted to run out to see Victor and the company… said she'd been out of the office for so long now that she was getting worried things would start falling apart." He didn't look happy with this, but Noah was beyond caring at this point.

"I'll chaperon the kiddies." Ben answered, looking to Noah's relieved and thankful face with a grin.

"Alright!" Johnny hammered his finger against a movie and time on the paper, oblivious to everything that had gone on during his search. "We're seeing 'Street Kings' at 1:45." He looked at his watch and then reached hurried around the sofa to grab Noah by the arm, "That means we're leaving now. Come on."

"Hold it." Noah forced them to stall, "Ben's coming too."

"What?" Johnny looked put out, turning his gaze over to watch the stony man shrug on his coat and hat. He gave Noah a look, to which she made a face to and pulled her arm out of his grasp.

Once on the stairs to the Baxter Building, all three of them tromping down them to the ground floor, Noah turned Johnny. "So what is this movie even about?"

"It's about this veteran LAPD cop whose life is all screwed up 'cause his wife died and there's this evidence against him that makes it look like he had something to do with this execution of another officer. He goes against everything he's ever worked for and doesn't trust anyone around him and stuff. It looks pretty good." He explained as they reached the ground level of the building and he lead the way to the front doors, "It's got Keanu Reeves in it and that Dr. House guy, Hugh Laurie, and Chris Evans… should be pretty good, yeah?"

"Hnn… we'll see."

"It'll be awesome."

"And if it isn't?"

Johnny shrugged and continued to lead the way down the street in the direction of the theater – it was only about a five minute walk from the Baxter Building, which was good. Ben was already looking less then pleased with his decision to tag along with them. Noah kept to the older man's side, aware of how uncomfortable he was with all the people whispering and staring at him like they were and thanking him for coming – he'd done it because he cared for her, knew she didn't want to be left alone with Johnny in a situation like this, and also maybe because he didn't want her in a dark theater alone with the blond anymore then she wanted to be.

When they got to the theater, despite the attention factor being drastically lower then it would have been at the XGames, they were still drawing an awful lot of attention from the other people there. Manly, people stared and pointed at Ben and fawned over Johnny; people recognized Noah too, but she didn't pay it much mind. It was best to just ignore them, in her opinion. After all, once Reed got that machine of his up and running, their powers would be gone and they'd be just regular people again and all this attention they got now would be nothing more than a fleeting memory. It didn't pay to get ate up with it now; Johnny, however, didn't seem to share her view in this and was feeding the fire as he showed off and flirted with the small crowd grouping around them in the theater lobby.

Noah shook her head at him with a scowl and gestured for Ben to follow her to the concession stand, "Want anything, Ben?"

She and the stony man bought a drink each and an extra large bucket of popcorn – the other sizes were too small for Ben to fit his hand in. They didn't bother getting anything for the blond still 'dazzling' the people near the door, and started to head into the hall and find the proper theater room for their movie.

"Johnny!" Noah shouted for the blond's attention, huffing irritably when he didn't hear or else just ignored her. Turning to Ben, she handed over her drink to the stony man to go on ahead of her and find them seats and then made her way over to the blond.

"…Baxter Building." The blond was talking to a group of girls who stared up at him, shamelessly flirting and giggling. They looked and sounded like idiots to Noah. But the blond was grinning that fool grin of his and touching at their arms; Noah curled her nose in disgust. "You might wanna think about coming by some time to hang out."

Noah rolled her eyes, shaking her head; he wasn't seriously inviting a bunch of girls over to the Baxter, was he? And Noah had a feeling that the term 'hanging out' wasn't nearly as innocent as it sounded when Johnny Storm used it.

"Guests don't have the privilege of inviting people over," Noah spoke up from behind Johnny, arms crossed irritably over her chest.

"Noah!" Johnny turned and looked at her, expression making it seem like he hadn't expected her to even be here at the theater. She glared at him. He grabbed her arm and pulled her around to stand beside him, hand resting familiarly on her shoulder while he gestured to the three girls he'd been talking to. "I want you to meet some friends of mine: Miranda, Lindsey, and Candace. They were on the bridge that day with Ben and the fire truck."

"That's nice." Noah gave the girls a once over, unimpressed with their over the top, over done appearances and looked back to Johnny as she shrugged his hand off her shoulder. "Ben's waiting in the theater with seats. Come on."

"Whoa, hold on. You're not even going to introduce yourself? Rude much?" He gave her a funny look; something between humor and expectance. He turned back to the three girls watching them, "Excuse her, ladies. This is Noah Richards, you know, Reed Richards' niece…"

"Oh, right, you're that ice girl." The blonde Johnny had pointed out as Lindsey said with a too wide smile.

Noah nodded with a tense half smile on her lips. She did little more than glance at the blonde, obviously uninterested in anything she had to say, and looked back at Johnny with barely contained annoyance. The girls seemed to notice her utter displeasure with them and the situation, responding to it in kind, but Johnny, per usual, was oblivious to the tension among the females around him.

"Are you coming, or not?" Noah gave the blond her ultimatum, gesturing towards the theater Ben was still waiting on them in.

"Yeah," Johnny nodded, using that crowd pleasing grin on her – Noah immediately stiffened in response to it, annoyance fanning into full on anger because of it. He waved her off in the direction of the theater rooms, "go on ahead, I'll be there in a minute."

Noah watched him turn back to the girls, turning his back on her. She shook her head, and left the blond behind, "Typical."

Benn picked up on her foul mood when she slid into the seat beside him, but smartly refrained from questioning it. Seeing Johnny hadn't come in behind her was enough of an answer for him anyway. The blond didn't actually even show up until the very end of the movie, plopping down noisily in the open seat beside Noah as the screen went black and the credits began to roll.

"Nice of you to join us," Noah gave him a sarcastic smile, shoving her left over soda into his hands, "You're just in time to watch the credits. Enjoy."

Johnny frowned at the theater cup and bendy straw, gesturing at the screen, "What gives?"

Ben scoffed gruffly at the blond as he stood up from the two seats he had had to take up with Noah, "Put two and two together, genius. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out."

"I missed the movie?" Johnny looked genuinely shocked and confused, "What? How is that possible?"

"You spent two hours chatting up the three stooges and catering to your adoring fans," Noah snapped. "Of course you missed the movie. Not that I'm surprised…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Johnny demanded as followed the two out of the theater and back into the lobby.

"You're more concerned with making the flocks of two-faced fad followers happy that you ignore everyone else." She explained to the blond with a clipped, annoyed tone to her voice, "You go to the rink with me and immediately start scoping out all the women around and get put out when you don't find enough to suite your needs. You go to the movies with me and Ben and you skip the movie in favor of making nice with people you don't even know!"

"I didn't skip the movie, I just lost track of time!"

People were watching them now, picking up on the argument blossoming between the two.

"You blew us off to invite Moe, Larry and Curly over there back to the Baxter Building!" She thrust an accusing finger towards the girls, hazel eyes frosty cold and hard as ice. "Something you don't even have the right to do! It isn't your place!"

"Their names are Miranda, Lindsay, and Candace." Johnny snapped back, glaring at Noah now, "And they happen to be my friends."

"Your friends?"

"Yes."

"Oh, that's rich," She laughed a mocking laugh at him.

"What is your _problem_?" The blond matched her anger with some of his own, "You demonize everything I do all the time!"

"_My_ problem? My problem is you! Them!" Noah pointed angrily out towards the people in the lobby, of which still included the three girls from earlier. "They're obviously vastly more important to you, Johnny! They're more important than your sister or Reed or Ben, the people who really are your friends!"

Johnny's jaw was tight, like it always got when he was mad, his blue eyes sharp. The temperature of the air rose and fell with their downward spiral of emotions, as was a familiar and common occurrence for them both – they'd both noticed by now that the temperature changed according to their emotions, especially in tense moments of anger or intense annoyance.

"But not you, right?" he snapped at her.

"No, not me. Not anymore," She shot right back. "I can't stand people like you."

"People like me?" The blond stepped up to her, invading her personal space and ignoring the way Ben reacted to the aggressive movement. He smirked nastily at the way Noah flinched at the movement, like she thought he was going to hit her – but he was disappointed to see despite the 

initial started reaction, she didn't give in to intimidation and glared right up at him. "And just what kind of person am I, exactly? An asshole?"

"No." She squared her jaw, lifting her chin challengingly, "you're worse. You just don't care."

She turned out and away from his tall, looming figure and out into the open space of the lobby to where Ben was watching them both carefully – waiting for the blond to give him a reason to knock his block off, apparently. Noah didn't give anyone the satisfaction of seeing the shaken expression in her hazel eyes as she left the theater, gaze focused ahead of her and not straying for any reason at all. She and Ben left Johnny behind, not that Noah cared.

* * *

Please Review and let me know what you think! Pardon any spelling/grammatical errors you might find.


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she was eight. What happens if she came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC

* * *

_Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down._

When Noah and Ben got back to the Baxter Building later that same night they and Johnny had disastrously gone to a movie, the young woman immediately made a beeline to her bedroom and slammed the door behind her. Reed had come into the main room just in time to see his niece disappear around the corner into the hallway and hear the door slam, hearing it's lock turn into place as well – he's smile freefell off his face, brows knitting in concern and confusion and turned the look to Ben questioningly.

The stony man's shoulders lifted and fell with a huge sigh, and he lifted his palms up to Reed in defeat. "Long story. Don't ask right now."

Reed nodded, looking at the floor under his feet, thoroughly confused and worried by his niece's behavior. He looked back up and followed Ben into the living room and watched his best friend drop himself down onto the sofa and flick on the television with careful, huge finger tips. "Where's Johnny…?"

Ben gave Reed a look. The dark haired scientist's expression melted into realization as he put two and two together; he slipped onto the sofa beside Ben, arm resting on the back of the sofa and face both serious and tired. "What happened this time?"

"You deaf?" Ben gruffed, "I just told you not to ask right now."

"Noah doesn't often get to the point where she slams doors and locks herself in her room; no matter how mad she might get on a daily basis. It's only happened one other time since she was eight…" Reed stared hard at Ben, "What happened?"

Johnny chose that exact moment, as Ben reluctantly opened his mouth to explain Noah's mood to her uncle, to come stomping from the main room and into the living room. His chest was lifting and falling harshly, like he had run all the way back from the theater and by the look of his face, the blond wasn't in the best of moods. He looked furious; eyes bright, brow creased in an angry scowl, jaw tense, and smoke rising off his exposed skin.

"Perfect timing." Ben turned from looking at Johnny to Reed, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder towards the blond, "Ask him."

"Johnny-"

"Where is she?" The blond demanded; his voice rough and raw sounding with his anger. It sent a warning up Reed's spine and he immediately got to his feet, face serious and palms held up to Johnny.

"Johnny, I think you need to tell me what's going on…" Reed suggested in a calm voice, watching the younger like a hawk.

"No, you need to tell me where the hell Noah is." He snapped at the older man, looking around and then in the direction of the hallway, "She in her room?" He made to head that way, but Ben jumping up to his own feet made his pause.

"I don't think so, hot-head. You've caused enough damage today," the stony man was an imposing figure next to Johnny, "just leave her alone."

A tense minute passed between the three men, Reed and Ben both watching Johnny with careful, wary looks and Johnny looking between them with his slowly calming fury. By the time the blond gave his head a violent shake and rubbed a hand against the top of his head and forehead, his breathing had calmed to a more natural level, but he looked far from happy.

"Fine." Johnny pointed aggressively at Reed and Ben before heading to his own room, "but you let me know when the bitch mans up and decides to come out of hiding."

Reed and Ben watched the blond leave and then stood in silence until they heard Johnny's door slam on the other side of the flat. The two friends shared a look, Reed shaking his head in disbelief and relief. This was getting really bad, really fast, it seemed and he had no idea what was going on anymore or how to fix it.

"What's with all the shouting and door slamming?" Sue asked as she came into the living with her brow furrowed. She tugged off her blazer, looking between Ben and Reed – she'd only just got back it seemed. "I could hear angry voices in the elevator three floors down!"

"Apparently, there was a bit of a falling out…" Reed said in a slow, careful voice and then shrugged.

Sue sighed heavily, understanding immediately, "Noah and Johnny at it again?"

"Worse than ever before, it seems." Reed nodded, rubbing a hand against his face.

Sue just shook her head, hands braced on her hips. She sighed, "Well… they'll get over it eventually. They always do – they went through rough patches like this when they were younger, remember?"

Reed's brow just jumped over his eyes, gaze turning to the hall where Noah's room was. He wouldn't really call this a 'rough patch', before it was just childhood disagreement and age difference and separation of interests… now, well, this was something a bit different and felt a lot more complicated.

* * *

Noah was on her side on her bed, staring at the alarm clock on the table at her bedside when she heard someone come walking down the hall and stop outside her door. The clock glowed 9:17 pm when she heard the lock on her door twist and the door slid open – confirming her suspicion that it had been Reed outside her door. Obviously, he'd flattened his hand down between the space between her door and the floor and then stretched it up to unlock it – just like he'd done with Ben's at Victor's medical facility. She didn't turn around, though, as he closed the door behind him and came over to sit on the edge of her bed behind her.

"It's getting late…" Reed commented softly to her back, "are you going to come out and eat something?"

She didn't answer.

"Sue made spaghetti. She's got some saved in the microwave for you if you want it… all it needs is to be warmed up a little."

Still no answer and Reed sighed at the lack of response he was getting out of his niece. He slumped down, lying on his back beside her, hands folded on his stomach and eyes on the ceiling. He didn't say anything more for a long while, just thinking and laying beside his niece. Eventually, despite the silence, Noah turned over to face him; she let her head drop to his shoulder and his arm came around to hug her to his side.

"Want to tell me what happened today?" The uncle asked, "Johnny's just brooding in front of the television and Ben is reluctant to talk. Says he's not even sure what happened and even if he did, it isn't his place to tell."

She just shook her head against his shoulder.

"Ok…" Reed frowned softly, "But at least say something. You've got your poor uncle worried to death, you know."

"Sorry." She muttered, shifting to lie on her back with the side of her head pressed to his, "He just… makes me so mad sometimes."

"I know. But it's no reason to become a hermit."

She cracked a smile at that, scoffing. "I'm not becoming a hermit. I just don't want to see him."

"That's fine, you don't have to." Reed nodded to himself, "…wish you'd tell me why."

"He's impossible to get along with!" She finally relented and exclaimed with an exasperated heave in her lungs.

"Impossible?"

"Yes, impossible. Utterly and completely impossible!" She scowled at the ceiling, "He's rude and doesn't think and all he cares about is fame, money and girls! Stupid girls just as unthinking as he is!"

Reed hesitated, pausing a moment to collect his thoughts before speaking. "Well, maybe that's not so much an impossibility so much as it's just… a bump in the road. Everyone has faults, Noah – people tend to zero in on each other's faults and we tend to over look our own." He shrugged, "Maybe, instead of dwelling on his faults, you should try to pinpoint Johnny's strengths… you might find he isn't nearly as impossible to get along with as you think."

She scoffed.

"Come on; don't knock it before you've even tried it." Reed chuckled, "Think about it – tell me some good things about Johnny…"

"No such thing."

"Noah…"

"Fine." She sighed heavily, focusing a scowl of concentration on the ceiling again, thinking hard. "Well, he can be funny… sometimes. And he's confident, but he's got an ego the size of Russia!"

Reed chuckled, "Good things, Noah. Focus on good things."

She made a face at him, before grudgingly continuing, "…he's strong and relatively nice looking. And, when he isn't too busy being pig-headed, he can be a really stand up guy."

"Good." Reed sat up, "Aside from the ego and pig-head comments, I'd say you did a good job."

"It's hard to ignore his negative qualities."

"I never said to ignore them." Reed smiled at his niece, "I just said not to dwell on them. Let them annoy you, because there's no real way to get past that, just don't let them consume you."

"I swear… sometimes you're better at being Oprah then she is." Noah chuckled, sitting up as her uncle lifted himself up off her bed. He scowled good naturedly at her, gesturing for her to follow him out of her room.

"Laugh all you want, you know I'm right." He smiled, arm looping around her shoulders in a hug as he guided her out of the room and towards the kitchen, "now, let's get that spaghetti warmed up for you, yeah?"

* * *

Noah and Johnny danced on eggshells around each other for the following three days. They full out avoided each other as best they could, skirting around the house and taking round about ways through rooms to ensure they never ended up crossing paths with the other. And the handful of times interacting was unavoidable; they didn't speak to each other and got through with it as quickly as they possibly could. Tension in the Baxter was high and strange little family they all had going on with each other was walking the razors edge, so to speak.

On the fourth day, Noah was sitting alone in an armchair in the living room with the window open behind her and a book open in her lap. A pair of glasses balanced on her nose and a pencil was held, posed in her right hand, scratching out notes in the margins of the pages as she went along. She heard someone else come padding into the room through the archway, but didn't lift her head to see who it was – so, it was quite a surprise when Jonathon Franklin Storm himself suddenly showed up at her right, crouching down beside the armchair and looking up at her.

He looked cautious, more precautious then Noah could ever remember seeing him before.

"Wanna go skating?" He asked her, sounding as unsure as he looked.

"Huh?" Noah hadn't meant to sound so brain numbed as she did, but the question had been so random and unexpected that she hadn't been able to think of anything else to say.

"You know… out at the rink." Johnny's brow furrowed as he repeated himself. He shook his head, straightening and waving his hands in front of him at Noah like it could erase his words, "No, never mind. Forget I said anything…"

Noah watched him turn around and head back the way he had come with hurried steps; obviously eager to get away from her. Surprise shaking out of her, Noah's brow furrowed over her own eyes as she dropped her gaze to her book again – thinking, not seeing the pages or words anymore as she worked around inside her head. Johnny had come in to ask her to go skating out of the blue… but Johnny hated ice skating. So…

Noah felt a small smile tug at her lips despite herself as she realized what had just happened. Johnny was trying to make amends – it was a really out there, roundabout way of saying sorry, but it was his way and Noah was glad she'd been able to recognize it for what it was. She set her book and pencil aside, folding her glasses up on top of it and stood from her chair, hurrying through the archway after the retreating blond.

"Johnny!" She called for his attention, catching him just before he reached the far hallway that would lead him towards his and Sue's rooms. He hesitated and glanced back to see her, looking as surprised as she had been to see him in the other room. Coming up to him, Noah sifted awkwardly at first, but then offered a small grin and tilted her head, "If… if we leave now, we might be able to catch the rink between parties…"

"Less little kids around." Johnny nodded thoughtfully, returning the girl's small grin. "Ok… I'll grab my jacket; you grab your skates…"

She nodded and they parted ways to collect the things they would both individually need. On her way back down the stairs to the main level of the flat, Noah passed her uncle and Reed gave her a funny look.

"Where are you in such a hurry off to?"

"Johnny and I are going out to the rink for a while." She smiled at him, pausing long enough to give him a peck on the cheek.

His expression uncoiled into a knowing smile, "With Johnny? Really?"

"Don't focus on the negative, right?" She arched a brow at him and he chuckled.

"Exactly." He waved her off, "Glad to see you're actually listening to me for a change…"

He watched her meet the blond by the elevator, relieved to see that they both got in without a fuss and with actual smiles on their faces. Finally…

* * *

Noah laughed as the blond fell to the ice again beside her, letting herself glide a bit beyond him before curving back around to stop just in front of him. She held out her hand to him, helping him hoist himself back up to his feet. He was frowning at the ice, shooting a scowl at her as she continued to chuckle.

"At least you've improved… a little." She chuckled again, "Last time you fell down ten times in five minutes. This time, you've only fallen down twice."

"Like my ass cares about improvement…" He muttered, "I knew there was a reason why I hated this skating thing."

She just chuckled at him, sticking near him as they started forward on the ice again – Noah relaxed and Johnny making each movement careful and thought out. Johnny started wobbling again soon after, but managed to stay on his feet this time, heaving a relieved sigh once he was steady again.

"How'd you even get into this kind of thing anyway?" Johnny asked her as a new song started playing over the speakers on the outer walls of the rink.

Noah shrugged, "I don't know… Reed suggested we try something new and brought me out here for my twelfth birthday, remember?" It had been the first time she and Johnny had ever met… "I wasn't very good back then, but I loved it. I went home black and blue, but while I had been out there on the ice, no matter how many times I fell down, I'd felt so free. _Alive_. The rink is one of the only places I ever feel carefree and can just…be. So I kept coming out, got better and now here I am."

Johnny nodded, looking her over. "So, then what are you doing working with Reed and handling all that Environmental Science stuff? Why not skate for a living or something?"

She sighed, "The work I do with my uncle is… a precaution."

Johnny looked at her questioningly and she chucked at him.

"I really do want to skate for a living… enter some competitions and then eventually teach classes." She shrugged, "It's just not an easy process. Right now I'm waiting to hear back from this skating committee; I want to enter in this competition that's taking place at a rink uptown next month… but I have to go through them before I can do anything."

Johnny frowned and then looked to her in realization, "So the good news you asked Willie the mailman about was about getting a letter from this committee?" She nodded and he made a thoughtful sound at the back of his throat, "Wow. That's actually kinda cool."

"Just kinda?"

"Sorry, sorry," he held up his palms to her, grinning that charming Johnny Storm grin of his, and gave a small bow of his head to her. "It's absolutely the coolest, out of this world thing I've ever heard of."

"Ok, smartass." She chuckled, shoving at his shoulder playfully. He lurched forward, arms waving out in a desperate attempt to catch his balance. Noah gasped and grabbed onto him, trying to steady him as well.

Once the blond was balanced and standing strong again, they both chuckled nervously and then with real humor in their voices – Noah letting him go with an apologetic look on her face. They looped around the outside of the rink a few times in companionable silence, and Noah marveled at that alone. She and Johnny were actually spending time together, civilly, and a fight had yet to break out. They hadn't even so much as argued the entire time they'd been out on the rink… it was truly amazing in her opinion.

"So, if you, like, win that competition next month," Johnny began again out of the blue, "you'll be some skating superstar, right?"

"Hardly. I'll just have a win under my belt… my name might be recognized by a few people, but I'll be far from famous." She snorted softly, "I'm more famous now because of these stupid powers then I would be if I won a competition." She paused and then shook her head, "Besides, it's too early to even be thinking about the possibility of winning next month. I have to hear from the committee and see if they'll even admit me at all first."

"You'll get in." Johnny assured her with a smile and Noah felt the flattery lightly color her face despite herself. "You're the best skater I know."

"I'm the only one you know…"

"Yeah, but that's beside the point." He chuckled and then waved his hands out in front of him, "So, can you do crazy figure skating tricks then?"

"I've learned a few."

"Show me one!"

"What? Now?" She shook her head, "Oh, no… there's too many people around."

"So what? It's their fault for being in the way if you hit them." He nudged her, grinning, "Come on… show me."

"You've never been interested before…"

"Jesus, Noah," Johnny laughed at her, shaking his head disbelievingly, "I'm interested now."

She gave him a suspicious look, but he had a point. Despite his lack of interest in her for the past seven years, it was more the now that really mattered than anything that might have happened in the past. She sighed, relenting with a nod and scowled at the victorious look he gave her. She brought them over to the least populated area of the rink, instructing for him to stay along the wall and out of her way as she glided off and put herself in the best position she could find.

She pushed out, starting by swooping around in her limited space with quick, small circles and cropped gliding. She pushed thoughts aside and just moved on the ice, arms coming up and out around her in graceful arcs and reaches. She lifted herself up into a small jump, twisting into a series of rapid spins in midair before dropping back down onto the ice. She exhaled, pushing herself backwards on her skates and turning herself around, lifting one leg and curving around the outer most bounds of the small area she had to work with, oblivious to the attention she was getting. People started moving aside and she soon found, quite surprised by it, that a larger area was given up for her to work in.

She circled around again, picking up speed. Her arms continued moving around her just as much as she pushed herself along the ice, giving her a sense of beauty Johnny had never seen from her before. She hadn't been kidding, he realized, when she told him how free and worriless she became on the ice – she looked like she could just up and fly away, or disappear in the blink of an eye with how calm and light she looked.

Her leg lifted outwards as she twisted herself into a one footed spin, back arching far behind her and arms reaching back to pull the lift leg up and putting her skate even with the back of her head. She tucked her head back down, body lurching forward as she continued the spin and she crouched low to the ice only to pick back up and spin with her leg bent behind her. A mist was building up around her, the temperature dropping drastically even for an ice rink, and Johnny watched her spin like a ghostly ballerina without a care in the world. It was fascinating and Johnny felt awed by it… who'd have ever thought that gangly, awkward little noodle-arm Noah could have ended up as beautiful and graceful as she looked right now.

So startled by the sight of her, Johnny Storm figured he had probably fallen in love with her right then in that moment. But no, that was preposterous… Johnny Storm didn't do the whole fall in love thing. He was simply awed by how good Noah actually was at this skating thing. Yeah – that had to be it.

Finishing, Noah slowed and eased to a stop on the ice near where she had begun the entire icy dance. Her arms came in close to her chest, chin ducked down to one shoulder and eyes closed. She started when applause built up around her and she opened surprised hazel eyes to look around at the strangers standing along the walls of the rink, clapping for her. She smiled, chuckling nervously, waving her thanks to the people and then turned to look at Johnny against the wall behind her. She pushed herself over to the blond – he was just staring at her, mouth slightly agape and blue eyes distant, like he was stunned or startled by something.

"What?" She frowned as he just continued to stare at her like that, "It wasn't _that_ bad, was it?"

A flabbergasted sound tore from the blond's throat and he reached out to cuff her gently at the temple, "_Bad_? Noah, that was amazing!"

She shied her face away at his compliment, tucking a rebellious curl back behind her ear, "Really?"

"Really!"

"You aren't just saying it because you feel sorry for me?"

Johnny shook his head at her, brow arched, "If I thought it sucked, I'd tell you. You know I would. None too gently at that… I'd scream it. Honestly."

She laughed, smiling happily. With a sigh, she looked him over, still smiling as she did, and nodded. "Then… thank you."

"No, thank _you_." The blond said as he looped an arm around the back of her neck and pushed them both off the wall to continue skating – he noticed people were aware to their presence on the ice now as well as their identities, but he was more concerned with Noah right now – as shocking as that might sound. He waved a hand out in front of them, "So, when you win the Olympics-"

She laughed out loud at that, "The Olympics?"

He just kept grinning and talking like she'd said nothing at all, "-when you win the Olympics, you _are _going to mention me while accepting the award or metal or whatever you get for winning that thing, right? After all, I am your best friend and the coolest guy you know and the real reason behind all your skating success…"

"Wait, what?" She exclaimed around and chuckle, "You? The reason I'm any good at skating? How do you figure that?"

"Your desire to get my attention and approval as a child – it's been the driving force behind your skating all these years, right?" He smirked.

"Whatever," She shook her head, still laughing softly as they pushed along the ice – Johnny's arm looped around the back of her neck and shoulders. "Sure, Johnny, I'll be sure to mention you if I ever win the Olympics."

She laughed again at the sheer absurdity of it all.

* * *

Please Review and let me know what you think! Pardon any spelling/grammatical errors you might find.


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she was eight. What happens if she came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC

* * *

_In __life, things can either be accepted or changed. If it is not accepted, it must be changed. If it cannot be changed, then it must be accepted._

Everyone noticed the change in both Noah and Johnny's behaviors towards each other take a drastic change for the better after that day at the ice rink. Things were calmer now, the five of them more at peace with everything then they had been yet since the accident on the Von Doom station a month ago. Reed was still hard at work with his machine, Ben was still struggling with the hardships of his transformation, but all in all, things were really starting to look up for them. Even Reed and Sue's relationship was loosening up… things between them were starting to fix themselves the more time they spent together and Noah was beyond pleased to see her uncle happy again.

The female Richards came wandering into the living room, plopping down on the sofa with her socked feet landing in Johnny's lap. The blond didn't care and let her have her way, eyes glued to the television, accepting the cookie Noah handed him without looking away from the dirt bikers launching themselves off ramps.

"You're watching this again?" Noah commented with a slight frown, "Obsessed much?"

Johnny snorted, "Coming from the girl that goes out to the ice rink almost every day…"

"Touché," she chuckled easily, watching him chomp down on the cookie she'd given him – he finished it in two bites.

"I've got to get out there…" Johnny groaned at the screen, blue eyes watching desperately – like he wanted to fling himself at the television set right then and there and sink into it.

Noah pursed her lips thoughtfully and then shrugged, "So go then."

Johnny turned a humorless frown at her, "Yeah, sure, taunt me."

"No seriously," she chuckled at the suspicious look he gave her, "I won't tattle on you. Of course, so long as you swear to come back in one piece, that is."

He'd been so accepting with taking her to the ice rink the other day that there was no way she couldn't repay him for it. Letting him go out to do something he loved, same as he had done for her was the least she could do.

The blond just stared at her a long moment, the commentator's voice on screen the only noise filling the room during the stretch of silence. When all she did was arch a brow at him, staring right back with a face of absolute seriousness, his expression cracked and he gave her a dazzling Johnny Storm smile.

"Seriously?" He watched her nod and then jumped up from the sofa and came to crouch down low to in front of her. He reached out, pulling her to him and hugged her, kissing her forehead, "I _love_ you! Jesus Christ, I could marry you right now!"

Startled wasn't the right word for Noah right now as she watched him hurry off to his room and collect his things for the adventure ahead of him. She'd expected the blond to be excited, but not to kiss her like that… not that anything he had done or said really meant anything. He'd just been grateful and she knew it.

He came charging back down the stairs a moment latter, zipping his jacket up over what she knew was his blue synthetic suit. She waved for his attention, giving him a stern look when he turned to her. "Don't make me regret this, Jonathon."

He gave her a thumbs up, smirking that Johnny Storm smirk of his, and then was gone. She shook her head and turned her attention back to the television screen, feeling a tingle against her forehead where he'd kissed her.

Twenty minutes after Johnny left the Baxter, Noah was watching him on the television screen out at the XGames arena. She smiled to herself, watching him practically glow on the screen in his blue and white jump suit. Flames curled around the number 004 high on the left side of his chest, close to his shoulder, and Noah had to chuckle at it – it was so fitting of the blond and his new abilities. He tugged on his helmet and the camera swung over to the commentator…

The beanie wearing man let out a loud whoop of excitement, speaking into his microphone and looking directly into the camera. _"Alright, alright…! I want ya'll to make a lot of noise for a very special guest… Mr. Johnny Strom! From the Fantastic Fiiive!"_

Noah found herself watching with batted breath as Johnny whipped out on a bike, flying across the track to a ramp and launching himself up into the air without an inkling of hesitation. He pushed himself up onto the handle bars of the bike, body straightening into a handstand off the handle bars as the bike climbed in height and then began to plummet back to the earth.

"_Whoa! Look at that lift!"_ Noah listened to the commentator exclaim as Johnny safely seated himself back on the bike just in time to land. She let out a breath, feeling giddy and excited as she watched the blond on the screen – he really was good at this dirt bike thing. _"That was Faaantastic!"_

"_But, Johnny, come on…that's old school! Show us something new…"_ The commentator baited the blond on and despite how excited Noah had been before while watching, a sudden unease washed over her.

Noah winced as the blond accepted the challenge, knowing he would long before he had. He went racing through the track again, a blur on the screen, and once again launched himself off the ramp in the middle of the arena. He released the bike completely and Noah gasped in alarm and fear as he flipped through the air, just behind his bike. She felt herself pale when the blond came around and reached for his bike… only it wasn't there for him to grab onto. Sure he would come crashing down in a heap, dead and broken, Noah cried out for her uncle, Ben and Sue to come into the room – she could hear them hurrying out to the living room as she turned back to the television to watch Johnny flame on and fully engulf himself in flames. It sent him upward a few yards, stunning everyone in the stands.

"_Is he flying…?!"_

If he was, it didn't last long. The flames around him went out and Johnny dropped hard to the track. He landed on a ramp of packed in dirt, rolling down it and coming to a stop not far from where his bike had shattered on the ground. He went completely still and Noah's eyes went wide in fear and alarm as the other's come rushing in to see what was wrong.

"What? What is it, Noah?" Reed demanded; worry creasing his brow upon seeing the distress she was under. She pointed to the television and everyone looked to it as the fallen rider yanked off his goggles and forced himself up on his feet.

"_He's ok! He's alright!"_ The commentator exclaimed and the crowed went crazy, _"Johnny Storm, ladies and gentlemen…!"_

Noah let out a hard breath of relief, collapsing back on the sofa while the rest of the group shared stunned looks and exclaimed in disbelief to see Johnny on the television – down at the XGames despite their telling him over and over that he was not to go there. Noah was just relieve to see the man had survived his insane stunt and watched him remove his helmet. He was breathing heavy, looking around at the cheering audience and Noah watched as that look… that look that she utterly and completely hated crossed his face.

"Oh no…" She groaned as he tore off the remains of his riding suit to reveal his synthetic suit to the crowd, arms held up high and wide before them. "He's letting it go to his head."

"He didn't…" Sue grit out, hands on her hips and face a hard line.

"Oh, yes he did…!" Ben confirmed angrily, pacing in front of the sofa, "Flame boy never listens!"

"What did he do to his uniform?" Sue demanded, drawing attention to the big number 5 on the left side of his chest. Noah kept silent despite being part of the reason behind the gleaming accent on his chest – he'd talked her into helping him make and attach the number to everyone's suit the other night. Apparently Sue had yet to go look at her own suit and see Johnny's wasn't the only one with it.

But if she was going to get in trouble for it, then so was Reed… he'd known about it from the start and had actually encouraged the add on.

At the same time, an XGame reporter was questioning Johnny about the same thing. _"-I gotta ask you about this outfit…"_

Johnny looked cocky, eating up the attention he was getting as he answered. _"Yeah, it's sort of Armani meets astronaut."_ The bystanders chuckled.

"_So, what are your superhero names?"_ The reporting woman asked him next and Noah groaned, well aware that Johnny had this one all figured out already.

"_Well, they call me The Human Torch."_ He grinned that grin again and Noah felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand on end, _"Ladies call me Torch…"_ The women around him giggled and Noah felt herself scowl.

"_And what about the rest of the team?"_ As the woman asked, a picture of Sue appeared on the big screen at the arena.

"_That's The Invisible Girl."_ Johnny answered and Noah winced as she looked back at Sue.

"'Girl'?" The blonde woman did not look amused.

"_And what about your leader, Reed Richards? I hear you call him Mr. Fantastic…"_

Ben shrugged, looking to Reed, "I could have been worse." Reed shrugged back and they all looked back to the screen as the reporter continued.

"_Is it true he can expand ANY part of his anatomy?"_ The crowd murmured curiously as Johnny cocked his head to the side and gave a sly grin.

"_Well, I've always found him to be a little limp."_

Noah looked at her uncle and was sure the poor man was going to keel over in disbelief that the blond had actually just said what he had. The man's brows were furrowed, dark eyes wide in utter alarm and humiliation.

"_And what about his niece, Noah Richards?"_ The woman asked and an image of Noah came up on screen same as Sue's had.

"_Oh, that's our resident Lady Ice…"_ Johnny grinned that grin and Noah wanted to punch him for it, but he wasn't finished and her irritation flared into full outrage as he continued, _"Or, as I like to call her, Noodle-Arm Noah."_

The crowd laughed out loud and Noah felt her face flush in a humiliation to rival that of her uncle's as she watched and listened to Johnny and the people on screen make a mockery of her. 

They delved into the origin of the nickname and Johnny was all too happy to recount the entire birth of the name on live television. Noah's jaw tensed up, teeth sinking into her tongue to keep herself in check, chest heaving with her quickening breath… how dare he?

"_And what about that?"_ Noah's image was replaced with one of Ben and the woman gesture up to it, _"What do you call that thing?"_

"_That's it,"_ Johnny explained, _"The Thing."_ People laughed, so, of course, Johnny couldn't just leave it at that. _"Yeah, you think this is bad, you should have seen him before!"_

"Ok." Ben growled out, glaring death and hate at the blond on the screen, "Now I'm gonna go kill him."

"Oh, please do." Noah snapped as she jumped up to her feet and followed Ben out of the room, "I'll help you."

* * *

Johnny was just leaving the arena when Noah, Reed, Ben and Sue arrived. He had a girl on each arm and a throng of people shouting and calling round him and following him out. Reports screamed out questions while photographers and bystanders snapped away with their cameras. He looked smug, eating it all up and gloating at the attention he was getting, egging it all on with his show offy, flirtatious manner of walking, talking and smiling for the cameras.

"There he is!" Sue pointed him out and the group stomped up to him, Ben hanging back without the other three realizing. Sue took to one side of her brother while Reed and Noah took the other, "Johnny!"

"Can we talk about this later, guys?"

"No, we cannot talk about this later!"

"Why can't we deal with this at home?" He stressed under his breath to his sister.

"What are you thinking?" The blonde woman continued, "You're totally out of control!"

Ignoring Sue completely, Johnny stepped forward, eyes scanning for his car. "Where's my ride?"

Just then, a collective gasp passed over the crowd as Johnny's once impressive sports car came crashing to the pavement a few yards away from him – it was compressed and smashed into the shape of a ball. Glass sprinkled the ground as it rolled, the lights giving a fetal, mocking flash and beep as Jonny gapped in horror at it. Everyone's attention shifted over to the left when the license plate to the once car came hurtling out of nowhere and collided with the back of Johnny's head.

Ben dusted off his hands, glaring and grinding his teeth. He punched a fist into the palm of one hand, stalking forward towards Johnny – obviously the one responsible for the ball shaped car in the middle of the road.

"You think that's funny, Pebbles?" Johnny demanded.

"Johnny!" Sue stepped in front of her brother.

"_What_?" He practically shouted, looking back and forth between the still approaching Ben and his sister. Reed and Noah were hovering around the blond as well, Noah glaring daggers of ice at the man.

"You gave us names?" Sue stressed to him, brows furrowed and expression troubled and upset. "You don't think! So now you're the face of the Fantastic Five?"

"A face that's about to be broken!" Ben growled as he and Johnny squared off.

Reed broke in between them, trying to put some distance between the two as he spoke to Johnny, "Look, this isn't permanent, Johnny. We need to be careful until we're normal again…"

"What if I don't want to be normal?" Johnny shouted at his companions. Around them, cameras were snapping and recording the event. The blond gestured widely at Ben, "I didn't turn into a monster!"

Ben reared back to punch Johnny right in the face, but the cringe and fear of everyone around him made him stop. The stony man just growled and turned to walk away.

"Johnny! Say you're sorry!" Sue demanded.

Noah felt her jaw dropped in shock when Johnny's response to apologizing was to hurl a fist full of fire at the back of Ben's head. Turning around in equal shock as everyone else, Ben was greeted with another ball of fire in the face. He stumbled back, but once he regained his balance he charged Johnny like a crazy mad bull. "That's it, Tinker Bell!"

"No, Ben!" Reed tried to stop his friend, "Wait! Ben!"

The stony man wasn't listening, though, and reared back again for another punch. "You wanna fly? Fly!" Ben punched, Reed stepped in between them and the punch went through him, held back a little from the elastic quality of Reed's body, but Johnny still went flying backwards into a Burger King hamburger advertisement – the add was scorched with Johnny's flames.

"Wait a minute, guys!" Sue tried to stop them this time as Johnny righted himself and started coming back for more. Ben was equally as ready to continue.

"Let's see if we can get blood from a stone." Johnny sneered as he kept on coming.

"Johnny!"

"Bring it, Burn Out!" Ben taunted.

"You two need a time out!" Sue exclaimed, bracing herself between the two – one hand holding Johnny back against his chest and the other against Ben's chest, aided by her invisible force. Ben growled and turned away again.

"Yeah, talk to block head." Johnny growled, gesturing after a retreating Ben, "He started it!"

"I don't care!" Sue held up a threatening finger, "Damn it, Johnny!" She turned away too and followed after Ben.

Johnny just glared after the stony man and his sister, sparing a side glance at Reed and Noah. He didn't look any happier to see them then he had Sue and Ben. "_What_?" He kicked at the remains of his car moodily while Reed and Noah approached him.

"You need to control yourself." Reed stressed, "Think before you act!"

"Yeah, but see, that's your problem, Reed!" Johnny pointed at the other man accusingly, "You always think, you never act!" He gestured around them, "What if we got these powers for a reason? What if it's like some _higher calling_?"

"A higher calling?" Noah started in this time, glaring and frowning at the blond, "Like getting girls and making money?"

"Is there any higher?" Johnny asked her, brow twitching at her. He suddenly looked as cross with her as she was with him, "And what about you? I thought you said you weren't going to say anything about me coming down here!"

"I didn't!" She snapped at him, "I watched you do that insane stunt with the flipping in the air and watched you came crashing back down to the ground! I thought you were going to get horribly hurt or even _die!_ I called them all in because it scared the living hell out of me and I was worried about you!" She stepped forward and jabbed his chest sharply with icy fingers, "And how do you repay? After I worry about you and agree to let you come out here without blabbing? You use that disgusting nickname and announce it to the entire world! You know I hate it, Johnny! You know it! And you did it anyway!"

"Hold on," Reed held up his palm to interrupt them, rounding on his niece. "You knew he was out here? And you didn't say anything? Noah!"

"I'm sorry!" She snapped at her uncle, "I was trying to do something nice for him after what he did for me by going to the ice rink! I didn't think after everything that's happened that he would go full out and be an asshole like this again!"

Reed just shook his head at her, his disappointment obvious in the way he looked at her.

"You know what?" Johnny continued after a pause, "This is who we are, guys. Accept it; or better yet…_ enjoy_ it." He shook his head at them and turned away to face the crowd.

"Enjoy it?" Noah snapped at him, coming up behind the blond and pulling him back around to face her angrily. The smirk that had been on his lips immediately died as he looked down at her. "How do we do that, Johnny? Flaunt it around like you do?"

"Sure, why not?" He grinned at her – that grin he used on his fans, on the masses. The fake, crowd pleaser she hated with a passion.

Her hand whipped out, hard, catching him in the side of the face with a slap that echoed out over the gasp of the crowd. Apparently, it had stunned them as much as it had the blond that had received it. Johnny's head had whipped to the side with the force of the blow, blue eyes wide with shock and left cheek reddening where Noah's hand had connected with his face. He slowly turned his face to look her in the eyes, expression hardening and twisting into anger.

"What the _hell_, Noah?" He shouted at her, one hand coming up to cover the mark she'd left on him.

"Don't you _ever_ look at me like that again!" She all but shrieked at him, trembling with her own rage. Reed stood behind her, hesitant but there, brow creased in worry and mouth hanging partially open in alarm.

"What?" Johnny loomed over her similarly to the way he had in the theater almost a week ago, voice raised to combat her's. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"That look! That shit-eating grin you use on all these damn people!" She gestured wildly to the crowd and cameras. "It's fake and I hate it! I'm not one of your god damn fans! I don't swoon and fawn over every little thing you do! I don't hang off your every word, cater to your ego or drape myself over you like a whore! I'm better than that! I more than that! And I don't deserve it! I deserve real! Not fake! _Real_!"

Johnny's anger shifted into something a little less uncontrollable and he listened to her with a frown. His brow creased even more when her eyes stared watering in the middle of her rant and he was more alarmed to see her about to cry then he had been over the slap or anything else she'd ever done or said to him.

"Damn it, Johnny!" She pushed the heel of one hand into her eye, trying to hold off the water works. She didn't want to burst into tears in front of all these people and have it wind up on television later tonight, no matter how badly she just wanted to cry at that moment. She jabbed her fingers into his chest again, turning away from him and making to leave.

But he reached out and stopped her, "Hold on, Noah…"

"I hate you!" She cried out, wrenching her arm from his grasp with a hard jet of ice and cold air. "I do! I hate you, Johnny Storm! You never learn and you'll never change!"

Both Reed and Johnny watched as Noah ran off in the direction both Sue and Ben had gone in earlier. The blond was rubbing at his near frozen limb with a pained wince, trying to rub feeling back into and heat it with his own fire; both men looked utterly stunned by Noah's behavior and words, though, perhaps for different reasons.

* * *

"You heard her, Reed. She hates me!"

"No, Johnny, she…" the elder man sighed heavily as he and the blond exited the elevator at the Baxter, "she was just upset. Emotional..."

"She screamed it!" Johnny stressed, "Slapped me and screamed 'I hate you!' in front of all those people and cameras!"

Reed shook his head, "She was upset, Johnny. Weren't you listening at all while she was talking?"

"Of course I was! It was hard to miss all that crazy!" The blond exclaimed, "Ranting and screaming because, apparently, I looked at her the wrong way. I didn't even know there _was_ a right and wrong way to look at someone!"

"I don't know, Johnny…" Reed heaved another sigh as he dropped into an armchair and pressed the heel of his hand into an eye in a show of just how tired he was after all the chaos that had ensued that day. "Just… I'll try and talk to her when she comes back. Ok?"

Johnny hesitated, frowning at the floor. "…what if she doesn't come back?"

"What? Don't talk like that." Reed scowled, "Of course she'll come back. She lives here!"

"Yeah, but I'm here. And she made it perfectly clear that she doesn't want anything more to do with me!"

"Give her a few hours, Johnny…" Reed nodded to the blond and himself, "She'll be back."

"But what if she _isn't_?"

Reed shook his head, "You've made her mad countless times before. She's never run off and not come back."

"Yeah… but I've never made her cry before." The blond sighed and it took so much out of him physically that he had to drop onto the sofa to keep from crashing to the floor. He rubbed a hand over his face and then stared at the palm with a frown and distraught blue eyes. "She was _crying_ when she left, Reed. _Crying_. She's never done that before…"

"Like I said… she was really upset."

"It wasn't like I did it on purpose!" He exclaimed; eyes on his palm still. "I didn't know I was using a 'fake' look when I looked at her! I don't even know what a fake look looks like!"

"I don't either…" Reed confessed, shrugging.

"How am I even supposed to apologize? 'I'm sorry for what I did, even though I don't have a clue what I did wrong.'?"

Reed chuckled, "I guess."

"Was I even in the wrong back there?"

"I don't know, but given from past experiences and seeing how upset she was, I'd say yes." Reed shrugged, "No matter what she said, Johnny, Noah cares about you. She really does, and whatever you did – looked at her wrong or whatever – it genuinely hurt her. I say, whether you were in the wrong or not, assume that you were and make amends as soon and cleanly as possible… because nothing will darken your life more than knowing you hurt a woman hanging over your head."

"Yeah?" Johnny watched Reed nod and sighed, shaking his head. "Think she'll actually listen to me, though?"

"Not at first, but that's just Noah for you." He gave a wary smile, "Bull headed through and through. But if you keep on long enough, prove you're there because you really want to be and not just halfheartedly, she'll give in and hear you out."

Johnny nodded again, "Ok." He slumped down on the sofa, crossing his arms over his chest and shutting his eyes, brow still furrowed over them. "Now I just have to wait for her to come back, right?"

"Right." Reed stood from the chair and headed over through the archway to his lab. The last thing he needed was to be present for this tsunami of a spat between his niece and the blond when Noah decided to come back home later that evening.

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Please Review and let me know what you think! Pardon any spelling/grammatical errors you might find.


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she was eight. What happens if she came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC

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_"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so you apologize for truth." - __Benjamin Disraeli_

Noah scowled at the cup of coffee on the table in front of her – she'd wanted the beverage earlier when she first arrived at the little corner diner she now sat in, but now that she had it… she didn't like the way the heat felt against her fingers, even through the cardboard holder around it. She'd grown so used to the slight numbness in her finger tips that anything that warmed that feeling out of her was unwelcome. So, rather than drinking it, she just stared down into it and at her own refection mirrored up at her from it. There was a television on behind the counter, shelved up high on the wall, playing and replaying the captured images and dialogue between the city's resident 'superheros' at the XGames arena earlier that day.

She could hear her own voice shouting with the voice of Johnny Storm, heard the amused voice of the reporter as her image stomped off from a slapped and stunned looking blond.

"God…" she shook her head, scowl deepening over the coffee cup and head turning away in an attempt to tune out the news playing across the room. It all sounded so stupid once she heard it from an outsider's perspective, or at least that was how the reporters were making it look and sound.

Eventually, she'd have to face the blond again – apologize for the slap and outburst, but she didn't have it in her to go back to the Baxter just yet. She hadn't had it in her to return for the last four hours… she'd wasted the entire day in that diner, listening to the news and staring at cups of coffee she never intended to drink, but kept ordering.

"Can I get you something else, sweetheart?" The lady behind the counter asked her and Noah glanced up to see the woman frowning softly, as if she were genuinely concerned for the down beaten appearance the brunette had about her.

"M-mm… no." Noah shook her head, "Thanks."

The woman only nodded, shoulders heaving lightly with a sigh and continued to frown at her from the corner of Noah's eyes. Noah was both amazed and thankful the woman didn't seem to recognize her just yet – she wasn't paying much attention to the news, apparently.

The door chimed as someone entered the coffee house, but Noah didn't bother to look up and back behind her to see who it was. Doing so might have only brought more attention to her – there was no way to know if the entering costumers would recognize her or not and it just wasn't a chance she wanted to take right now. She was surprised into lifting her head, however, when the person entering came to her table and sat down across from her.

Noah frowned deeply, shifting uncomfortably in her seat as she looked across at the man who had sat down with her. "Victor Von Doom?"

He was wearing black gloves over his hands and a high collared black coat as well; his familiar smug expression plastered over his face. He looked a bit out of it, though; like his face almost wanted to be twitchy. He nodded up towards the television with a slightly amused look on his face, "Rough day?"

"What do you care?" She asked him snippily.

"Enough to want to buy you something to eat," He picked up a menu from the little rack on the table and laid it out in front of her. "Go on, anything you'd like."

"No… no thanks." Her frown turned confused as she folded the menu back up and pushed it aside, "I'm not hungry."

"No? Very well…" He simply looked at her now, lips tweaked in a mildly friendly smirk.

She grew more and more uncomfortable under his gaze, trying to ignore it, but unable to. She sighed after a while, scowling at him again, "What are you even doing here? My uncle won't take well to hearing that you're stalking me…"

Victor chuckled, "No, I dare say he wouldn't… but, no. Not stalking, Miss Richards. I saw the reports on the news, heard the spat between you and young Mr. Storm. I saw you sitting in here from the window and thought I might come in and see how you're doing…"

"Why?" Her frown flipped again; confusion etched into her soft features.

"Would you believe me if I said I was worried about you?"

She snorted and rolled her eyes, "No."

"Well, I was." He chuckled again before continuing, "I realize how… frustrating this all must be for you." She was watching him closely as he spoke, uncertain of him, "Still so young and being forced to live with something you can't understand or explain. And then trapped in an environment where you're forced to… coexist with someone so vastly different from you. You and Johnny haven't been doing so well together, have you?"

Noah frowned at him again; she hadn't liked the way he used the word 'together'. He made it sound like she and the blond were a quarreling newlywed couple. "He and I were never much of a team. Ever. So it isn't much of a surprise, really, and nothing to be… worried about." She made a face at the concern he claimed to harbor for her.

"Still," Victor shrugged at her expression, "I understand how difficult it must be for you to have to interact with that buffoon."

"He… isn't always so terrible." She turned her scowl to the coffee cup again, shrugging, "Only when his ego gets in the way of things."

"Does it happen often?"

"Often enough to be irksome…" She sighed, nodding her head slowly. This certainly was odd – Victor Von Doom, the biggest asshole Noah knew, was sitting here playing counselor with her like he actually gave a damn.

"Well, in my professional opinion," Victor shifted in his seat, looking over her thoughtfully, "I don't think living in a constant state of chaos like you do in the Baxter is very healthy. The stress of this back and forth war and peace you have with Johnny Storm could cause you permanent emotional and psychological damage..."

Noah laughed at that, "Oh, believe me; Johnny Storm doesn't have _that_ much effect over my life."

"That's why you're hiding away in a second class diner…?" He asked with brows arched high over his eyes. When she remained silent to his accusation he nodded and pursed his lips. He sighed, gesturing to himself, "I know the thought of leaving your uncle after being with him for so long is a difficult thought to consider, but… I'd like to extend an offer to you. I've several condos that you might find appealing…"

Noah shook her head, frowning tenfold at the man. She opened her mouth to decline the offer, but Victor lifted a hand to her for silence.

"Do not trouble yourself with answering now. Just… take a few days to mull it over and let me know as soon as you're ready." He gave her a smile, moving to stand from the table, "I just hate to leave you stranded in that place when I can so easily save you."

Noah watched him leave the diner, still taken aback by what he had said to her. Save her? Things weren't nearly so bad that she'd want to leave the Baxter and her uncle in favor of one of Victor Von Doom's condos. Not that it hadn't been nice, unusually nice, of the business man to make an offer like that… But Noah had no reason to even consider it. It was ridiculous to think that a few blowouts with Johnny Storm could really cause enough lasting damage to truly affect her life in the long run.

* * *

Noah trudged her way back home a rough hour after Victor left her at the diner, still mind boggled by the man's words and showing up like he had. She'd come in from the elevator with a weary look to her, hearing the television in the living room and glimpsing Ben on the sofa as she climbed the stairs and turned down the hall to her bedroom. She didn't have to go and look to know Reed was in his lab, working away like usual; Sue was probably in the lab with Reed or perhaps even in her own room. And frankly, she wasn't sure she cared to know where Johnny was… maybe a little, but not enough to ask anyone. She didn't want to see him right now anyway – and it wasn't even because she was angry, because she really wasn't all that mad at him anymore. Mostly, she was just embarrassed by her own behavior.

So when she pushed the door to her room open and then closed behind her and then looked up from her study of the floor to find Johnny Storm standing by her closet with his back to her, it nearly scared her to death. She gasped, jumping in fright to see the blond standing there, and watched him turn to face her with a cautious gaze.

"Sorry," Johnny held up his palms to her as he apologized, "didn't mean to scare you."

"What… what are you doing in here?" She looked around suspiciously, almost expecting to see some terrible thing waiting for her in the corner. Seeing nothing, she simple turned a tense face around to stare at him once more.

"Ah… waiting for you." He chuckled nervously, hands falling and slipping into his pockets.

"You could have done that out in another room."

"Yeah, I could have," He shrugged, "but if I did that, there'd be no guarantee that you wouldn't just run up here and lock me out."

She nodded, head tilted – he had a point. But, point or not, it was rather awkward having the other in her room like this. She moved away from the door and hesitantly removed the sweater she had on, toeing off her shoes as well in the process. "For the record… I wouldn't have locked you out."

"Good to know." Johnny nodded watching her move around the room – she was awkward in his presence like this, he realized, but making an effort to have it seem as though she wasn't bothered by having him in her room. He nodded to the alarm clock on her bedside table, "So… where've you been? You were gone so long we almost thought you might not be coming back tonight…"

"I… stopped at a diner for some coffee."

"For five hours?"

She frowned, looking at the clock herself and then down at the watch at her wrist. She shrugged, "Yeah… guess so."

"Must have been some damn good coffee…"

"Don't really know. I never actually got around to drinking any."

"Oh…" Johnny frowned this time and Noah couldn't blame him – it sounded odd even to her to say you stopped for coffee, hung around for hours, but never drank any. He lifted a hand, rubbing at the back of his head, "So… um…" He sighed noisily, taking two long strides forward towards her and took up both of her hands in each of his own – he held them close together, lifted high up at level with the center of his own chest between them, "Noah, I'm sorry. Alright? I'm sorry."

She stared at him with wide hazel eyes, obviously alarmed by the hold he had on her and the near desperate look he used on her in his blue eyes. The honesty there was unnerving. She shook her head slowly, watching him cautiously again, "…for what?"

"For…earlier." His gaze wavered from Noah to just over her shoulder, his brow tweaked over blue eyes.

She sighed at the look, "You have no idea what you're even apologizing for, do you?"

"What? Yes! Of course I do!" That same wavering look and Noah shifted her weight from one hip to the other, arching a brow at him. Her expression alone was enough to tell Johnny she didn't believe him in the least. So he gave in, fingers flexing around her hands, "Ok, no, not really."

"Johnny…" she shook her head at him.

"Hey, look," he tugged at her hands insistently, like he was fighting for her attention despite already having it. "I am sorry, alright? I don't really know what I did, but I know whatever it was royally pissed you off… and I'm sorry."

She watched him lift her hands up and press each one in turn to his lips, kissing them softly in apology.

"I am so sorry, Noah." He stared down over her hands at her, "Believe me."

The startled look she stared at him with slowly edged off her face and she dropped her gaze from his face to his shoulder and back up again. She nodded slowly, eyes focused once more on his shoulder as he breathed a sigh of relief and grinned down at her; a small frown twisted her face, "But don't think you're off the hook so easily. Just because you've said sorry doesn't mean I've forgiven you…You have to understand why I was mad to begin with and _then_ be sorry, not just apologize because I was upset."

"Fine, alight," he nodded, pulling her by her hands to her bed and guiding her to sit down with him on the edge of the mattress. He still held onto her hands, "Explain it to me."

She scoffed at him, "That would sort of defeat the purpose, Johnny."

"No, come on," he made a face, "I'm tryin' here. But it doesn't work if I don't even know what I'm doing." He gave her a nudge, "Now… explain this to me: you got mad, slapped me and screamed you hated me, all because of a look?"

"Not _a_ look, _the_ look." She scowled at him, "Johnny… when you're here and out of the media's lime light you're a great guy and I like you, but when you get out there in front of other people and cameras… it's like you become a completely different person. Everything about you changes; you hold yourself differently, your smile changes, and the way you look at people is so completely not you that it's scary!"

Johnny just stared at her, squinting like she'd just told him he was actually a five year old girl and not a twenty-four year old man. He shook his head at her, face tilted forward close to her's, "Noah… it was just a look."

"Are you my friend?"

"Huh?"

"Are you my friend, Johnny?" She repeated, an intensely serious look on her face, "A simple yes or no will suffice."

"Yeah. Yes, of course." He nodded forcefully, "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything." She told him sternly. She sighed again, twisting her hand to wrap her fingers around his as well, "If you have two faces in this world, then so be it, but you don't ever use the one you reserve for strangers on a friend."

"Well, yeah… that makes sense." He nodded, hyper aware of his hold on her hands being returned onto his. He leaned his forehead against her's, "One problem though… I don't even know what this fake face of mine looks like, let alone that I even have a second face or whatever."

"Yes, well… then you'll just have to refrain from being the egotistical, incompetent dumbass you so frequently tend to become in a crowd." She smirked up at him through the short distance between their two faces, seeing the same expression lift the blond's expression as well. Their fingers flexed carefully around each other's, foreheads together and eyes locked as they grinned.

Noah's smile slowly fell as she realized just how close and comfortable they had suddenly become with each other. She cleared her throat, sitting back and standing from her bed – stepping away from him with a shying expression and her arms crossing over her own stomach as she looked out the window of her room to the city and setting sunlight outside.

"Anyway," she kept her eyes out the window, feeling awkward all over again and very aware of the blond's eyes on her back. "I should apologize to you as well." She turned around, leaning 

back on the window pane, and hesitantly looked up at him, "I didn't handle the situation back then very well. I was upset and let my feelings get the better of me… I shouldn't have said what I said and I shouldn't have hit you. I'm sorry."

"Hey, no worries," Johnny grinned that Johnny Storm grin of his, waving her apology aside. "I deserved it, right?"

"Yes, but that's beside the point." She chuckled despite herself, "I shouldn't have done it, least of all with all those people and reporters around. They've done nothing but show it over and over again on the news since it happened."

"It might not be the best publicity, but it's publicity nonetheless." Johnny winked at her, "You'll learn to love it."

"I highly doubt that."

"You've said the same thing about me, but you've learned to love me…"

"I've learned to _tolerate_ you." She arched a menacing brow.

"Yeah, I bet." Johnny just kept grinning that grin at her and Noah had to look away with a scowl; an irritatingly forced scowl at that.

"You're far too overconfident." She told him, "It's very unbecoming."

"And you're far too argumentative." He countered.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you how rude it is for a man to invade a woman's room unbidden?"

"Sure," He smirked as he stood from the bed, approaching her with slow, confident movements. "But I'm not exactly unbidden, now am I?"

Noah stared at him as he approached her, pressing herself back against the window pane and attempting a look that betrayed nothing of how intimidated she felt at this moment. She swallowed thickly as he closed in on her, lifting a finger and pointing to the door, stopping him in his tracks.

He stared at her finger blankly for a moment and then turned an arched brow at her, "You're serious?"

"Quite." She made a shooing gesture at him, "It's been a long day. I'm tired and your room is across the flat."

"Aw, come on…" He smirked again, "Girl's love sleepovers, right?"

"Actually, I never cared much for them." She confessed with a smirk of her own. She walked him to her door, held it open for him and leaned in the doorway to watch him make his way down the hallway. "Good night, Johnny."

He made an about face, smiling at her as he walked backwards down the hall. He gave her a mock salute, wishing her a good night as well.

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Please Review and let me know what you think! Pardon any spelling/grammatical errors you might find.


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